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PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


"S, 


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Diviiion 

Sfction 

Number 


:\ 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL 


HISTORY 


OF    THE 


People  of  Israel 

FROM  THE  RULE  OF  THE  PERSIANS 
TO  THAT  OF  THE  GREEKS 


BY 

ERNEST    RENAN 

AUTHOR   OF   THE   "LIFE   OF  JESUS,"    "THE   FUTURE    OF   SCIENCE,"   ETC. 


BOSTON 
ROBERTS     BROTHERS 

1895 


Copyright,  1895, 
By  Roberts  Brothers. 


SSnibcrsitg  i3rfss: 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.  S.  A. 


CONTENTS, 


BOOK  VIL 

JUDEA   UNDER  PERSIAN  RULE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Page 

The  Arrival  op  the  Caravans  at  Jerusalem  after  the 

Return  from  Babylon 1 


CHAPTER  II. 

Re-establishment  of  Divine  Worship  at  Jerusalem. — 

New  Laws  of  Ritual 8 


CHAPTER   III. 
Lévites.  —  Nethinim 23 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  End  of  the  House  of  David.  —  The  Triumph  of 

THE  High-Priest  over  the  Nasi 30 

CHAPTER  V. 

Levitical  Additions  to  the  Torah.  —  Elaboration  of 

THE  Rites  of  Worship 45 


vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Pagb 

Nehemiaii  and  the  Walls  of  Jerusalem 56 

CHAPTER  VII. 
The  Administration  of  Nehemiah 73 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Legendary  Story  of  Ezra 84 

CHAPTER  IX. 
The  Final  Consolidation  of  the  Torah 93 

CHAPTER  X. 
Promulgation  of  the  Law 103 

CHAPTER  XL 
Bigotry 115 

CHAPTER  XII. 
The  Last  Gleams  of  Prophecy 123 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
The  Samaritans 130 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

What  the  Jews  borrowed  from  Persia. —  Angelology     136 

CHAPTER  XV. 
The  Decadence  of  Jewish  Literature 149 

CHAPTER   XVI. 
The  Deep  Sleep  of  Israel IGl 


CONTENTS,  vii 

BOOK  VIII. 

THE  JEWS   UNDER   GREEK  DOMINION. 


CHAPTER   I. 

Page 

Alexander. — Alexandria 171 


CHAPTER  II. 
The  Rule  of  the  Ptolemies 182 

CHAPTER  III. 
Proseuch^.  —  Synagogues 190 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Greek  Translation  of  the  Pentateuch      .     .     .     198 

CHAPTER  V. 
Literature  of  the  Alexandrine  Jews 208 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Commencement  of  Proselytism.  —  Pious  Frauds  .     .     .     220 

CHAPTER   VII. 

The  Rule  of  the  Seleucid^  in  Palestine.  —  First  Ap- 
pearance of  Rome  in  the  East 229 

CHAPTER  Vni. 
Middle  Class.  —  Sacerdotal  Nobility 237 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Jesus,  Son  of  Sirach 246 


viii  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   X. 

Page 

The   Struggle   for   Hellenism  in   Palestine.  —  Anti- 

ocHus  Epiphanes 259 


CHAFfER  XI. 

The   Persecution   of   Antiochus.  —  The   Abomination 

OF  Desolation 266 

CHAPTER  XII. 

The  Evident  Necessity  of  Rewards  in  a  Future  Life     277 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
The  National  Uprising 289 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
The  Book  of  Daniel .     297 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Victories  of  Judas  Maccabeus.  —  The  Jewish  Worship 

Restored 314 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Princely  Rule  of  Judas  Maccabeus     ....     »     .     321 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  Hellenist  Reaction.  —  Liberty  of  Conscience     .     327 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
The  Asmonean  Family:  Jonathan 343 


HISTORY  OF 

THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL. 


BOOK   VII. 

JUBE  A    UNDER  PERSIAN  RULE. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE  ARRIVAL  OF  THE  CARAVANS  AT  JERUSALEM 
AFTER  THE  RETURN  FROM  BABYLON. 

The  numerous  caravans  which  brought  Israel  back 
to  its  ruined  acropolis  must  undoubtedly  have 
reached  Jerusalem  bv  wav  of  the  north,  over  the 
Via  dolorosa  travelled  sixty-five  years  before  by  the 
unhappy  captives  urged  forward  by  the  lash  of  Neb- 
uzaradan.  The  joy  and  the  grief  of  these  pious 
emigrants  when  they  beheld  the  desolated  city  of 
their  dreams  made  doubtless  one  of  those  impres- 
sions on  the  nation  which  a  people  never  forgets, 
more  especially  when  there  is  no  rhetorical  narrator 
to  spoil  them.  Nothing  remained  of  the  ancient 
city  but  the  foundations  of  its  buildings,  beside 
which  lay  great  stones  detached  from  the  walls, 
the  Temple,  and  the  palaces.* 

*  Isaiah  Iviii.  12  ;  Ix.  15. 

VOL    IV.  —  1 


2  HISTORY  OF   THE   PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Half  a  century  is  but  a  short  time  in  which  to 
complete  the  ruin  of  buildings  formed  of  strong 
materials  ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the 
chiefs  who  led  the  return  from  Babylon  found 
Jerusalem  in  the  state  in  which  it  had  been  left  by 
the  Assyrians.  A  ruined  city  neyer  wholly  dis- 
appears until  it  is  rebuilt,  or  at  least  until  another 
city  has  been  built  near  it.  Only  the  slight  struc- 
tures that  had  once  been  priyate  houses  had  been 
totally  destroyed.  The  yery  ruins  seem  to  haye 
been  left  entirely  deserted.*  But  the  country  around 
it  was  still  inhabited.  The  little  towns  of  Judah 
and  of  Benjamin  still  offered  means  of  subsistence. 
The  emigrants  for  the  most  part  endeayoured  to 
take  up  their  quarters  in  the  belt  surrounding  these 
ruined  walls,  where,  since  the  murder  of  Gedaliah, 
some  little  order  had  been  established.! 

*  See  Isaiah,  before  quoted. 

f  The  documents  relating  to  the  Return  from  the  Captivity  are 
contained  in  the  six  first  chapters  of  the  book  of  Ezra.  These  six  first 
chapters  are  composed  from  two  documents.  Tlie  first  (A)  is  of  great 
historical  value,  extending  from  chap.  ii.  1  to  iv.  5,  then  afterwards 
from  vi.  11  to  vi.  22.  The  other  (R)  is  full  of  apocryphal  passages. 
It  comprises  chap,  i.,  then  extends  from  chap.  iv.  6  to  vi.  1.3.  The 
writer  who  compiled  (B)  had  before  him  the  ])rophecies  of  Haggai  and 
Zechariah,  and  has  borrowed  their  chronology.  The  author  of  the 
Memoirs  of  Nehemiah  (chap,  vii.)  has  copied  from  (A)  his  list  of 
those  who  returned  from  Babylon,  with  some  changes.  Again,  the 
passage  in  Nehemiah,  from  xii.  1  to  xiii.  3,  incorporated  into  that 
honk,  repeats  the  list  v.ith  some  further  alterations.  The  change  from 
Hebrew  to  Aramaic  (iv.  8)  and  the  return  to  Hebrew  (vi.  19)  is  of  no 
critical  importance.  Like  the  Aramaic  verse  in  Jeremiah,  and  the  Ara- 
maic portion  of  the  book  of  Daniel,  it  was  due  to  carelessness  on  the 
part  of  the  copyist.  After  the  books  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  had  been 
.arranged,  as  we  have  them  now,  by  the  author  of  the  Chronicles,  some 


ARRIVAL    OF   THE   CARAVANS  AT  JERUSALEM.     3 

The    new-comers,   it  appears,  were  received  witli 
little    welcome.     The    day   after   their   arrival    they 
found    themselves   surrounded    by    enemies. *"      The 
villagers  whose  worship  Josiah    had  destroyed  had 
probably  relapsed  into  being  lahvists  of  the  ancient 
kind,  —  that    is   to    say,    they    offered    sacrifices    on 
high  places,  and  they  had  no  objection  to  practising 
the    rites    of   Moloch,   Astarte,   and    Adonis,    whose 
efficacy  everybody  else  in  Syria  firmly  believed  in. 
The  faithful,  therefore,  whose  ideas  had  been  much 
advanced    during   the    Captivity,    found    themselves 
confronted    by    their    old    co-religionists,    who    had 
made   no   progress,  and  must  have   felt  as  if  they 
were  hardly  of  the  same  religion.     They  succeeded, 
however,  in  establishing  their  ascendency  ;  and  soon 
there  rose  around    Jerusalem   a   number   of   Jewish 
villages.     Later,  the  colony  of  Ezra  experienced  the 
advantage  of  these  settlements.     By  degrees   these 
successive  strata  of  returning  colonists  formed  strong 
Jewish  centres  at  Jericho,  at  Gibeon,  at  Mizpah,  at 
Zanoah,  at  Beth-haccerem,  at  Beth-zur,  and  at  Kei- 
lah.t     At  Tekoa  the  Jewish  community  was  numer- 
ous, and  seems  to  have  always  entertained  some  fears 

copyist  after  iv.  8  has  followed  the  Targum  instead  of  the  original; 
misled  by  the  word  n'r:n5«,  he  preferred  to  insert  what  he  considered  the 
original  Aramaic  to  the  Hebrew  text  (compare  Daniel  ii.  4).  In  other 
words,  neither  in  Jeremiah  nor  in  Ezra  nor  in  Daniel  are  the  changes 
into  Aramaic,  and  back  again  to  Hebrew,  preceded  by  such  marks  as 
would  prove  a  difference  of  documents.  Tt  was  mere  chance  that  gave 
us  in  these  passages  the  Targum  instead  of  the  original. 

*  Ezra  iv.  1.     Compare  Psalms  cxx.,  cxxi.,  cxxiv.,  &c. 

"j-  Nehemiah  iii. 


4  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

touching  the  preponderance  of  Jerusalem.  Southern 
Judea  had  been  acquired  by  the  Edomites.*  The 
city  of  Hebron,  however,  never  seems  to  have  been 
entirely  outside  the  circle  of  Israel,  t 

The  destitution  among  the  people  after  their  return 
must  have  been  terrible.  They  had  no  houses,  and 
no  lands  to  raise  crops  upon.  The  supplies  they  had 
brought  from  Babylon  grew  less  and  less  every  day. 
Their  political  situation  too,  with  a  Persian  i:)eka}i 
for  their  governor,  must  have  been  extremely  hum- 
ble. It  does  not  appear  that  Zerubbabel  had  any 
well-defined  local  jurisdiction.  He  was  simply  the 
head  of  a  religious  family,  a  millat-pasch,  as  such 
men  are  still  called  in  the  Ottoman  Empire.  The 
land  was  by  no  means  restored  to  its  former  owners. 
The  enemies  of  Israel  had  taken  possession  of  nearly 
all  of  it.  There  was  no  trade,  no  purveying  for  lux- 
ury. Those  who  had  not  strong  faith  must  often 
have  envied  their  brethren  who  stayed  behind  in 
Mesopotamia. 

Besides  all  this,  the  means  of  attaining;  moral  and 
intellectual  culture  were  very  deficient.  The  writ- 
ings of  Haggai  and  Zechariah  (of  which  we  shall 
presently  speak)  give  us  the  impression  that  those 
who  first  returned  from  Babylon  brought  few  books 
with  them.  A  man  without  much  original  talent, 
fairly  well  read  in  the  ancient  writings  of  his  people, 
might    have   composed    something    less    feeble    than 

*  Ezekiel  xxxv.  10;  1  Esdras  iv.  50. 
t    1  Maccabees  v.  G5. 


ARRIVAL    OF   THE    CARAVANS  AT  JERUSALEM.     5 

these  two  scrolls  of  Haggai  and  Zechariah,  which 
we  may  regard  as  the  last  sighs  of  the  expiring 
Hebrew  genins.  Writings  addressed  to  the  multi- 
tude, such  as  these  two  prophetic  books,  are  rude, 
rough,  and  illiterate,  while  on  the  other  hand  the 
elegiac  poems  of  the  time  show  all  the  literary  skill 
that  distinguished  Hebrew  poets  during  the  Cap- 
tivity. Some  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the  Psalms 
seem  to  belong  to  this  period.* 

When  laliveh  turned  again  the  captivity  of  Zion  f 
We  were  like  unto  them  that  dream. 

Then  was  our  mouth  filled  with  laughter 
And  our  tongue  with  singing. 

Then  said  they  among  the  nations, 
lahveh  hath  done  great  things  for  them. 

lahveh  hath  done  great  things  for  us, 
Whereof  we  are  glad. 

Turn  again  our  captivity,  O  lahveh  ! 
As  the  streams  from  the  South. 

They  that  sow  in  tears 

Shall  reap  in  joy. 

Though  he  goeth  on  his  way  weeping,  bearing  forth  the  seed, 

He  shall  come  again  with  joy,  bringing  his  sheaves  with  him. 

And  again  :  — 

They  that  trust  in  lahveh  are  as  jNIount  Zion  ;  | 
They  who  dwell  in  Jerusalem  stand  fast  forever.  § 

*  For  instance,  Psalms  xxxiii.,  xcv.,  xcvi.,  xcviii.,  cxxiv.,  cxxvi.,  and 

several  others. 

t  Psalm  cxxvi.     (The  English  is  from  the  Revised  Version  of  the 

Old  Testament.  — Tr.) 

X  Psalm  cxxv.  . 

§  The  author  says  this  reading  from  the  ancient  versions  is  prefer- 
able; xh^'sT  being  twice  repeated. 


6  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 

As  the  mountains  are  round  about  Jerusalem, 

So  is  lahveh  round  about  his  people 

From  this  time  forth  and  forevermore  : 

For  the  sceptre  of  wickedness  shall  not  rest  upon  the  lot  of 

the  righteous, 
That  the  righteous  put  not  forth  their  hands  unto  iniquity. 

Do  good,  0  lahveh,  unto  those  that  be  good, 
And  to  them  that  are  upright  in  their  hearts. 

But  as  for  such  as  turn  aside  unto  their  crooked  ways 
lahveh  shall  lead  them  forth  with  workers  of  iniquity. 
Peace  be  upon  Israel.* 

Sometimes  Jerusalem  and  the  psalmist  relate  to 
each  other  their  anguish,  their  anxieties,  and  their 
sorrows. 

JERUSALEM. 

I  will  lift  up  my  eyes  unto  the  mountains ;t 
From  whence  shall  my  help  come  ? 
My  help  cometh  from  lahveh. 
Which  made  heaven  and  earth. 

THE    CHOIR. 

He  will  not  suffer  thy  foot  to  be  moved  ; 
He  that  keepeth  thee  will  not  slumber. 

THE  PSALMIST. 

Behold,  he  that  keepeth  Israel 
Shall  neither  slumber  nor  sleep. 

THE   CHOIR. 

lahveh  is  thy  keeper, 

lahveh  is  thy  shade  upon  th}^  right  hand.  \ 

The  sun  shall  not  smite  thee  by  day,  § 
Nor  the  moon  by  night. 

*  Words  perhaps  added  for  liturgical  purposes, 
f  Psalm  cxxi.  X  Read  1*7'^'. 

§  With  his  malign  influences. 


ARRIVAL   OF   THE   CARAVANS  AT  JERUSALEM,    7 

laliveh  shall  keep  tliee  from  all  evil  j 
He  shall  keep  thy  soul. 

lahveh  shall  keep  thy  going  out  and  thy  coming  in 
From  this  time  forth,  and  fore  ver  more.* 

A  mighty  deed  had  been  accomplished.  This 
wonderful  return  from  captivity,  carried  out  through 
fricyhtful  difficulties,  is  compared  to  the  exodus  and 
the  passage  through  the  Red  Sea. 

The  psalmist  saw  in  it  a  miracle,  a  fresh  manifes- 
tation of  the  favour  of  the  Almighty  towards  his 
people  Israel.!  The  heathen  are  supposed  to  be 
struck  with  amazement  at  such  a  prodigy.^  A  God 
who  exercises  such  care  over  his  little  ones  demands 
in  return  piety  and  submission.  To  renew  the  re- 
bellions of  their  fathers  in  the  Wilderness  would 
have  been  madness.  There  is  no  sign  now  of  former 
daring.  Absolute  docility  and  a  fervent  ritualism  § 
have  replaced  the  bolder,  ruder  faith  of  ancient  times. 
The  era  of  piety  was  about  to  begin.  Jewish  piety 
was  to  be  the  origin  of  piety  throughout  the  world. 
By  piety  Israel  was  to  accomplish  its  marvellous  des- 
tiny, and  without  dogma  or  theology  or  abstract 
speculations  create  the  religion  of  mankind. 

*  Compare  Psalms  cxxiii.,  cxxiv. 

t  Psalms  xcv.  to  c,  cxxvi.     Compare  Isaiah  lii.  14  and  what  fol- 
lows; Ivii.  2  ;  Ixvi.  19  and  what  follows. 
X  Psalm  xxiv.  2,  3. 
§  The   analogy  with  the  ritualism  of  the  Church  of  England  is 

striking. 


CHAPTER   II. 

RE-ESTABLISIIMENT    OF    DIVINE    WORSHIP    AT    JERU- 
SALEM. —  NEW   LAWS    OF   RITUAL. 

This  first  restoration  of  the  captives  to  their  own 
land  was  nevertheless  but  a  feeble  enterprise,  and 
we  may  well  doubt,  if  nothing  had  followed  up  the 
action  of  Zerubbabel  and  Joshua,  whether  Judaism 
would  have  had  a  future.  It  was  like  a  palm-tree 
planted  in  a  flower-pot.  The  seed  sown  for  the 
future  was  vigourous,  but  the  soil  provided  for  its 
development  was  insufficient.  Judaism,  such  as  the 
Prophets  had  pictured  it,  needed  the  freer  air  it 
found  in  the  dispersion.  Its  national  existence  was 
now  ended.  But  what  of  that  ?  What  is  under  the 
protection  of  laliveh  is  not  a  petty  kingdom  subject 
to  the  vicissitudes  of  human  things  ;  it  is  a  mighty 
work,  a  principle  of  life  for  all  mankind.  The  mis- 
sion appointed  to  Israel  is  that  of  a  religious  society. 
The  end  of  its  political  life,  the  destruction  of  its 
national  framework,  far  from  entailing  spiritual  ruin 
upon  Israel,  will  be  the  means  of  developing  its  des- 
tiny. While  Persia,  Greece,  and  Rome  occupy  the 
foreground  of  the  world's  history,  little  Israel,  like 


RE-ESTABLISHMENT   OF  DIVINE   WORSHIP.        9 

the  white  ant  of  Africa,  works  its  way  silently 
through  the  structure  of  ancient  society,  and  will 
bring  the  subsoil  to  the  surface.  The  Prophets  and 
the  Law  (  Torah)  fulfil  their  slow  task  of  working  as 
the  leaven  of  coming  ages.  Above  the  ruins  of  the 
Oriental,  Greek,  and  Roman  civilisations  spring  two 
mighty  trees,  Christianity  and  Islam,  each  an  off- 
shoot of  Judaism.  For  a  thousand  years  at  least  it 
is  all  over  with  the  principle  of  nationality. 

The  host  that  returned  to  Jerusalem  from  Babylon 
under  the  leadership  of  Zerubbabel  was  mainly  com- 
posed of  priests  and  lévites.  These  men,  consecrated 
to  God's  service,  proposed  as  their  first  object  the 
restoration  of  divine  worship.  The  lévites,  who 
"  lived  by  the  altar,"  had  an  especial  interest  in  the 
speedy  re-establishment  of  the  rites  of  sacrifice.  The 
rebuilding  of  the  Temple  was  therefore  decided  upon 
from  the  first.  Immediately  after  the  arrival  at 
Jerusalem  certain  heads  of  families  began  to  accumu- 
late treasure  for  this  purpose,  by  making  free-will 
offerings.*  They  caused,  besides,  a  hundred  priestly 
garments  to  be  made  at  their  own  expense  ;  and  from 
that  moment  the  things  that  most  engaged  the  atten- 
tion  of  all  Israel  were  the  due  performance  of  public 
worship  and  the  regulation  of  its  liturgy. 

The  place  where  the  altar  had  stood  was  still  vis- 
ible ;  perhaps  the  stones  of  its  base  had  been  scarcely 
overthrown.  Joshua  (son  of  Josedeck)  and  Zerub- 
babel caused  it  again  to  be  set  up.     Thus  this  altar 

*  Ezra  iii.  1  and  what  follows. 


lo  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

bore  some  analogy  to  the  little  altars  built  in  haste 
out  of  the  remains  of  heathen  temples  by  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Lebanon  at  the  close  of  the  fourth  century, 
as  circumstances  favoured  them.* 

At  Jerusalem  it  soon  became  possible  to  restore 
the  system  of  sacrifices,  appointed,  as  was  believed, 
by  Moses,  while  in  addition  great  clianges  were  made 
to  the  ancient  ritual.  The  moment  had  come  to 
carry  out  all  the  liturgical  dreams  in  which  priests 
had  indulged  themselves  since  the  days  of  Ezekiel.t 
A  morning  and  an  evening  service  was  established, 
and  sacrifices  were  offered  at  each  of  them.  At  the 
new  moons  and  other  feasts,  especially  at  the  Feast  of 
Tabernacles,  the  worship  was  more  complicated,  and 
the  number  of  the  victims  was  increased.  Besides 
these  public  sacrifices,  there  were  those  of  individ- 
uals.:!: Tlie  lévites  and  the  singers  were  thus  pro- 
vided for.  The  money  brought  by  Zerubbabel  from 
Babylonia  was  freely  employed  to  purchase  victims 
for  the  daily  sacrifices.  The  people  had  no  bread, 
but  the  altar  of  lahveh  smoked  upon  the  spot  that  he 
himself  had  chosen.     The  future  at  least  was  secure. 

A  few  months  after  the  restoration  of  the  altar  the 
rebuilding  of  the  Temple  was  begun  under  the  super- 
intendence of  Zerubbabel  and  Joshua,  while  the  task 
of  overseeing  the  workmen  was  committed  to  the 
lévites  and  their  sons.     The  new  Temple  no  doubt 

*  Mission  de  Phenicie,  p.  219  and  what  follows. 
t  See  vol.  iii.  p.  30"). 

X  Ezra  iii.  2  and  what  follows;  Numbers  xxix.  13  and  what  fol- 
lows; Exodus  xxix.  12. 


RE-ESTABLISHMENT  OF  DIVINE   WORSHIP.      u 

was  of  the  proportions  of  the  old,  but  it  was  far  in- 
ferior in  grandeur  and  magnificence.*  The  porches, 
or  lishoth,  were  an  essential  part  of  the  structure, 
and  were  rebuilt  like  the  7iaos  itself. t  The  Saitic 
style  must  have  been  the  rule  in  all  the  details  of 
ornamentation. 

Workmen,  as  in  the  days  of  Solomon,  had  been 
brought  from  Tyre  and  Sidon  ;  their  materials  came 
from  Tyre  by  way  of  Joppa.  No  doubt  the  funds 
needed  for  these  purchases  were  at  first  contributed 
by  rich  men  who  had  stayed  in  Babylonia, 

The  laying  the  foundation  of  the  sacred  edifice  was 
the  occasion  of  pious  ceremonies,  at  which  the  priests 
assisted  in  costume  with  trumpets,  the  lévites  sound- 
ing cymbals,  and  all  singing  to  Jehovah  the  hymns 
of  praise  in  which  the  words  "  Hallelu-jah,"  "Praise 
to  lahveh,"  were  continually  repeated.  The  refrain 
was,  "  Praise  Tahveh,  for  he  is  good  ;  "  the  people 
replying  in  their  turn,  ''  For  his  mercy  endureth  for- 
ever." \  In  this  they  believed  themselves  to  be 
following  the  example  of  David, §  to  whom  they  no 
doubt  by  this  time  attributed  the  many  Psalms  of 
the  hallel  which  form  the  last  portion  of  the  Psalter, 
and  which  have  been  the  model  for  Christian  litur- 
gies throughout  the  world.  The  younger  genera- 
tions danced  round  the  walls  of  the  Temple,  which 

*  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xv.  xi.  1. 

t  Ezra  viii.  29.     In  Nehemiah  viii.  1,  the  Water  Gate  is  evidently 
within  the  limits  of  the  Temple. 

X  Ezra  iii.  11;  2  Chronicles  v.  13  ;  vii.  3  ;  xx.  1. 

§  Ezra  iii.  10  ;  1  Chron.  v.  16;  2  Chron.  xxiii.  18  ;  xxix.  27. 


12  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

were  beginning  to  be  built,  with  cries  of  joy  ;  but 
those  who  remembered  the  old  Temple  wept,  so  infe- 
rior did  this  new  edifice  seem  to  that  which  it  was 
intended  to  replace. 

The  work  of  reconstruction,  made  easier  by  what 
remained  of  the  foundations  and  the  great  stones  of 
the  old  Temple,  might  have  been  completed  in  three 
or  four  years,  but  it  took  twenty.  One  is  tempted 
to  suspect  that  the  ultra-idealists,  who  held  that  God 
has  no  other  temple  but  the  universe,  may  have  op- 
posed the  work,  alleging  that  lahveh  had  respect  only 
to  the  piety  and  contrition  of  the  poor.*  Orders  and 
counter-orders  from  an  Oriental  central  government 
are  like  daily  bread  to  officers  in  charge  of  its  provin- 
cial affairs.  The  worshipper  of  lahveh  who  had  not 
adopted  the  reforms  of  Josiah,  and  above  all  the  in- 
habitants of  Ephraim  and  of  the  former  kingdom  of 
Israel,  raised  difficulties,  which  impeded  the  work  of 
Zerubbabel  and  Joshua.  If  things  passed  as  is  re- 
lated in  the  document  that  has  come  down  to  us,f 
we  must  own  that  at  first  the  new  builders  of  the 
Temple  seem  to  have  met  good  treatment  from  the 
old  lahvists.  They  came  to  Zerubbabel  and  Joshua 
and  the  heads  of  Jewish  families,  to  explain  that 
they  too  were  worshippers  of  lahveh  ;  they  asked 
leave  to  take  part  in  the  construction  of  the  Temple, 

*  Isaiah  Ixvi.  1-4,  —  a  passasse  which  cannot  be  by  the  unknown  hand 
of  the  author  of  the  second  portion  of  Isaiah.  It  sometimes  happens 
that  a  book  of  the  Bible  will  contain  passaj^es  for  and  against  the 
same  opinion.     Compare  Jonah,  the  iM  Zechariah,  &c. 

t  Document  A.     See  page  2,  note. 


RE-ESTABLISHMENT  OF  DIVINE   WORSHIP.      13 

that  there  they  also  might  have  a  right  to  offer  sac- 
rifice.* But  Zeriibbabel  answered  them,  "-  Ye  have 
nothing  to  do  with  lis  to  build  a  house  for  our  God."  t 
lahveh  is  now  the  God  only  of  Judah  and  of  Ben- 
jamin. The  appeal  for  unity  which  resounds  through 
the  Prophets  will  be  heard  no  longer.  The  schism 
between  the  two  parties  in  Israel  was  made  perpetual, 
and  Samaritanism  in  consequence  became  a  separate 
religion.  This  was  directly  contrary  to  the  ideas,  or 
at  least  the  hopes,  of  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  and  tlieir 
disciples.  But  we  must  remember  that  those  who 
conducted  the  return  from  Babylon  were  for  the 
most  part  animated  by  the  sacerdotal  spirit.  It  was 
priests  who  first  hindered  the  realisation  of  the  unity 
dreamed  of  by  the  Prophets  ;  and  their  opposition 
was  but  natural.  The  successive  jDurgings  Judah 
had  imposed  upon  itself  excluded  other  Israelites. 
The  ancient  lahveh  of  the  Israelites,  and  lahveh  as 
developed  by  the  Prophets,  were  hardly  the  same 
God.  Every  reform  in  the  Church  throughout  its 
history  has  produced  a  schism.  The  straiter  the  way 
the  closer  are  the  ranks  ;  and  the  closer  the  ranks 
the  more  are  excluded. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  causes  of  the  an- 
tipathy between  the  ancient  worshippers  of  lahveh 
and  the  new  arrivals,  this  hostility  was  thenceforward 
an  important  factor  in  the  history  of  Judaism.     The 

*  For  examples  of  temples  raised  by  joint  assistance,  Corpus  inscr. 
Semit.  vol.  i.  p.  100  and  what  follows, 
t  A  similar  reply  may  be  found  in  Nehemiah  ii.  20. 


14  HISTORY  OF  THE   PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

opposing  party  attempted  to  arrest  the  reconstruction 
of  the  Temple  by  all  sorts  of  intrigues  with  the  Per- 
sian governor  and  his  officials.  Zerubbabel,  though 
he  had  received  his  authority  from  the  King  of 
Persia,  was  only  a  subordinate  officer  in  the  army 
of  administration.  Events  that  took  place  at  the 
centre  of  the  Empire  were  felt,  though  feebly,  in 
its  remotest  provinces.  Cyrus,  who  appears  to  have 
been  personally  favourable  to  the  Jews,  died  in 
629  B.  c.  The  end  of  the  reign  of  Cambyses  saw 
the  beginning  of  revolutions,  which  did  not  end 
until  Darius,  son  of  Hystaspes,  was  established  on 
the  throne.  In  the  second  year  of  the  reign  of 
Darius,*  520  b.  c,  work  on  the  Temple  was  resumed, 
still  under  the  authority  of  Zerubbabel  and  Joshua. 
The  hostility  of  the  Samaritans  for  a  time  was 
powerless. 

These  bitter  quarrels  left  their  deep  trace  upon 
the  Psalter.  The  faithful  servant  of  lahveh  is  sur- 
rounded by  enemies  eager  to  devour  him.  All 
stratagems,  all  falsehoods,  are  emploj^ed  to  ruin 
him.  He  is  in  the  midst  of  hostile  sava^^es  who 
seek  his  hurt.  He  is  himself  a  man  of  peace,  but 
others  all  around  him  are  for  battle. t  The  con- 
tempt of  the  profane  —  designated  as  the  mighty, 
the  proud,  the  hinderers  of  the  work  (in  contrast 
to  the  meekness  and  humility  of  true  believers)  — 
burns  to  the  heart  if  those  who  have  had  much  to 

*  Ezra  iv.  24  ;  date  taken  from  Haggai  i.  1 ,  and  from  Zechariah  i.  1. 
t  Psalm  cxx.  J  Psalm  cxxiii. 


RE-ESTABLISHMENT  OF  DIVINE    WORSHIP.      15 

endure.     Patience  was  not  the  virtue  of  the  ancient 
Israelites. 

Many  a  time  have  they  afflicted  me  from  my  youth  up  * 
Now  may  Israel  say. 

Many  a  time  have  they  afflicted  me  from  my  youth  up: 
But  they  have  not  prevailed  against  me. 

The  ploughers  ploughed  upon  my  hack; 
They  made  long  their  furrows. 

lahveh  is  righteous; 

He  hath  cut  asunder  the  cords  of  the  wicked. 

Let  them  be  ashamed  and  turned  backward, 
All  they  that  hate  Zion. 

Let  them  be  as  the  grass  upon  the  housetops, 
Which  withereth  afore  it  groweth  up  : 

Wherewith  the  reaper  filleth  not  his  hand, 
Nor  he  that  bindeth  sheaves  his  bosom. 

Neither  do  they  that  go  by  say,  The  blessing  of  lahveh  be 

upon  you; 
W^e  bless  you  in  the  name  of  lahveh. 

Or  again  :  — 

If  it  had  not  been  lahveh  who  was  on  our  side 
Let  Israel  now  say; 

If  it  had  not  been  lahveh  who  was  on  our  side 
When  men  rose  up  against  us  : 

Then  they  had  swallowed  us  up  alive, 
When  their  wrath  was  kindled  against  us; 

Then  the  waters  had  overwhelmed  us, 
The  stream  had  gone  over  our  soul  ; 

Then  the  proud  waters  had  gone  over  our  soul.f 

*  Psalm  cxxix. 

t  Aquila,  ^£  Ta  iJSara  o\  in^p^cpauoi.     Compare  DHT,  and  later  on, 

page  120,  note. 


i6  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Blessed  be  lahveh 

Who  hath  not  given  us  over  a  prey  to  their  teeth. 

Our  soul  is  escaped  as  a  bird  out  of  the  snare  of  the  fowlers; 
The  snare  is  broken,  and  we  are  escaped. 

Our  help  is  in  the  name  of  lahveh 
Who  made  heaven  and  earth.* 

The  thing  that  even  more  than  difficulties  of 
administration  seems  to  have  retarded  the  building 
of  the  second  Temple  t  was  the  extreme  poverty  of 
the  colonists.  Bad  harvests  and  disastrous  droughts 
impoverished  the  community.  Work  on  the  Temple 
was  resumed  feebly  and  slowly.  Zerubbabel  and 
Joshua  thought  they  must  have  recourse  to  the 
prophetic  spirit,  and  stirred  up  one  Haggai  to  influ- 
ence the  people.^  Prophets  were  beginning  to  be 
dimly  discerned  as  men  of  the  past,  ~  a  pheno- 
menon that  hereafter  might  never  be  seen.  Since 
the  death  of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel — that  is,  for 
more  than  forty  years  —  no  man  had  arisen  to 
assume  that  post  of  danger.  The  great  Anonymous 
Prophet  of  Babylon  desired  to  remain  in  obscurity: 
probably  he  was  as  little  known  to  his  contem- 
poraries as  he  is  to  us.  The  restoration  of  the 
Temple  led  to  a  revival  of  prophecy.  The  Jiehiim 
(the  prophets)  appear  to  have  been  held  superior  to 
the  cohanim  §  (the  priests).  There  were  several  con- 
temporary prophets  whom  we  might  call  prophets  of 
the  reconstruction  of  the  Temple. || 

*  Psalm  cxxiv. 

t  Neither  Haggai  nor  Zechariah  mentions  these  difficulties. 

X  Haggai  i.  11. 

§  Zechariah  vii.  5-7.  ||  Zechariah  viii.  9. 


RE-ESTABLISHMENT  OF  DIVINE   WORSHIP.      17 

Four  times  in  the  year  520  Haggai  lifted  up  his 
voice  to   reprove  the  colonists    for   their  slackness. 
Their  poverty   and    all    the   ills   that  they   endured 
proceeded,  he  told    them,  from  their  lack    of    zeal. 
The   people  he  addressed    showed    great  indulgence 
in  receiving  him  as  one  from  whose  lips  they  iieard 
the  voice  of  lahveh.     If  we  read  his  hrief  prophecy 
written  sixteen  years  after  the  Sarcje  illuininare  of 
the    great    Unknown    Prophet,    and    even    perhaps 
while  he   was  still  living,  we   shall  be  surprised  to 
observe    how    literary   art   had   become    debased   in 
Jerusalem  by  the  rabbinical  subtleties  and  casuistic 
distinctions  that  were  then  in  vogue.     The  breadth, 
the  resonance,  of  the  ancient  poets  have  been  lost  by 
their  successors.     Theirs  is  the  prose  of  a  second- 
class  journalist,  pleading   for  his  party.     And   yet 
Haggai  stirs  our  hearts,  when,  speaking  to  the  few 
amono-  them  who  could  have  seen  the  former  Temple, 
he  owns  that  the  new  building  must  appear  to  them 
very  poor,  but  predicts  its  future  splendour.    He  tells 
them  that    the   gold    which   it    now  lacks  shall   be 
brought  to  it  by  converted  heathen.     He  says  that 
the  glory  of  this  latter  house  shall  be  greater  than 
the  glory  of  the  former.     Does  not  all  gold  belong 
to  lahveh.  Lord  of  Sabaoth  ?     Peace  is  worth  more 
than  gold.     Peace   is  lahveh's   special  gift,   and   in 
this  place  he  will  give  peace. 

Another  prophet  who  in  those  days  arose  in  Jeru- 
salem was  hardly  superior  in  talent  to  Haggai.  but  he 
had  higher  political  aims  in  view.    He  was  Zechariah, 

VOL.  IV.  —  2 


1 8  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 

son  of  Berecliiah,  of  whose  prophecy  we  possess  a 
short  megilla  ;  "^  in  which  we  can  perceive  the  deca- 
dence of  Jewish  taste  and  of  the  Jewish  lanoruao-e, 
though  his  ideas  frequently  remind  us  of  those  of 
the  great  Anonymous  Prophet.t  Zechariah  is  infe- 
rior to  Ezekiel,  who  was  himself  so  inferior  to  Isaiah 
and  to  Isaiah's  imitators.  He  sets  his  ideas  in  a 
framework  of  symbolic  visions.  Apocalyptic  visions 
of  things  that  are  to  come  to  pass,  beginning  in 
Ezekiel,  are  completed  by  Zechariah.  Unfortunately, 
his  visions  often  deo-enerate  into  enisrmas,  and  several 
passages  are  unintelligible, |  as  it  was  apparently  the 
intention  of  the  writer  that  they  should  be. 

Zechariah  rose  to  greater  heights  than  Haggai,  but 
we  feel  that  the  days  of  the  nobis,  the  ancient  seers, 
are  passed.  For  though  in  Zechariah's  eyes  the 
greatest  crime  of  the  people  of  old  w^as  that  they 
had  not  obeyed  the  voice  of  their  prophets,  and  the 
chief  duty  of  the  men  whom  he  addressed  was  to 
hearken  to  the  new  ones,§  it  is  clear  that  the  office 
of  an  inspired  teacher  is  not  of  the  importance  it 
was  once,  and  will  before  long  give  place  to  a  system 
of  permanent  prophecy  called  the  Torah.    Prophecies 

*  Chapters  i.-viii.  We  have  several  times  explained  (vol.  ii.  pp. 
391,  392,  and  vol.  iii.  p.  274,  note  1)  how  very  ancient  writings  came 
to  be  added  to  the  close  of  the  prophecy  of  Zechariah,  by  those  who 
collected  and  put  together  the  prophetical  books. 

f  Zechariah  evidently  must  have  known  his  prophecies,  but 
attributes  them  to  Isaiah  (vii.  7  and  what  follows). 

X  Zechariah  vi.  1-8,  shows  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  sibylline 
oracles. 

§  Zechariah  i.  1-6. 


RE-ESTABLISHMENT  OF  DIVINE   WORSHIP.      19 

delivered  verbally  —  and  such  delivery  was  the  very 
soul  of  ancient  prophecy  —  were  no  longer  in  fashion. 
After  Ezekiel,  the  prophet  became  a  writer.  Apoc- 
alyptic visions  were  an  easy  form  of  fiction  in  which 
to  convey  revelations  intended  to  be  read,  in  which 
completeness  of  each  composition  was  a  necessity. 

The  visions  of  Zechariah  all  relate  to  the  events 
passing  in  his  time,  —  to  efforts  made  to  stimulate 
religious  revival  ;  to  the  rebuilding  of  the  Temple  ; 
to  aspirations  towards  a  better  future  ;  and  to  the 
certainty  of  final  triumph.  Horsemen  clad  like 
Persian  light-horsemen  {angares)  have  overrun  the 
world  ;  all  is  tranquil  ;  yet  the  day  of  lahveh's  ven- 
geance has  not  yet  arrived.  An  angel  asks  when 
he  will  have  pity  upon  Judah  ?  The  answer  is  that 
the  angel  must  have  patience.*  Another  vision  is 
an  earnest  appeal  to  the  Jews  who  are  still  in  Baby- 
lonia or  elsewhere,  to  come  and  join  the  colony  at 
Jerusalem.  lahveh  is  about  to  strike  the  world  with 
terrible  blows.  The  safest  place  must  be  Jerusalem.! 
lahveh  will  establish  his  throne  in  Zion.  Many  na- 
tions will  flock  to  worship  him  there,  and  will  become 
his  people. 

An  event  had  happened  that  had  aroused  these 
feelings,  and  had  given  Zechariah  occasion  to  write 
one  passage  as  beautiful  as  anything  to  be  found  in 
the  pages  of  the  Anonymous  Prophet  of  Babylon.^ 

*  1st  vision,  chap.  i.  7-17.  f  3d  vision,  chap,  ii, 

X  Zechariah  vii.  1  and  what  follows.  In  verse  2,  Sk— D'D,  there  is 
an  evident  error.  I  propose  :  nyxikJ^-^DlD,  or  ^3:3?,  Be  this  as  it 
may,  the  names  of  the  two  Jewish  envoys  are  of  heathen  origin. 


20  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL. 

In  the  year  518  the  Jews  in  Babylonia,  having  heard 
that  the  Temple  was  nearly  completed,  sent  a  depu- 
tation to  do  homage  to  lahveh.  The  envoys  were 
greatly  comforted  by  what  they  saw,  and  asked  the 
cohanhn  of  the  Temple  and  the  nebiim  if  it  was 
necessary,  now  that  the  restoration  was  complete, 
to  observe  the  fasts  that  had  been  instituted  in 
memory  of  the  misfortunes  of  588,  the  year  of  the 
Captivity.  The  Temple  had  been  rebuilt  after 
seventy  years  of  desolation  :  why  need  they  still 
mourn  for  its  destruction  ?  Zechariah  replied  by 
referring  to  the  authority  of  the  Prophets  of  old. 
As  he  considers  the  second  part  of  Isaiah  the  work 
of  Isaiah,  he  quotes  its  pages  as  such  ;  *  but  not 
having  the  text  before  his  eyes  he  gives  the  pas- 
sage with  some  shaping  of  his  own.  There  is  no 
more  occasion  to  fast.  All  that  has  made  way  for 
spiritual  religion. 

Execute  true  judgment,  and  show  mercy  and  peace  every 
man  to  his  brotlier,  and  oppress  not  the  widow  nor  the 
fatherless,  the  stranger  nor  the  poor.  And  let  none  of  you 
imagine  evil  against  his  brother  in  your  hearts. 

Like  the  great  Anonymous  Prophet,  Zechariah 
has  boundless  hope  in  the  future  of  the  restored 
Jerusalem.! 

I  am  jealous  for  Zion  witli  great  jealousy,  and  I  am 
jealous  for  her  with  great  fury,  saith  lahveh-Sabaoth.  I 
am  returned  unto  Zion,  and  will  dwell  in  the  midst  of 

*  Compare  Zechariah  vii.  and  Tsaiah  Iviii. 
t  Zechariah  viii.  1  and  what  follows. 


RE-ESTABLISHMENT  OF  DIVINE   WORSHIP.      21 

Jerusalem  ;  and  Jerusalem  shall  be  called  the  City  of  Truth 
and  the  Mountain  of  lahveh-Sabaoth  the  Holy  Mountain. 
There  shall  yet  old  men  and  old  women  dwell  in  the  streets 
of  Jerusalem  ;  every  man  with  his  staff  in  his  hand  for  very 
age.  And  the  streets  of  the  city  shall  be  full  of  boys  and 
girls  playing  in  the  streets  thereof.* 

This  era  of  happiness  seems  about  to  begin.  lali- 
veh  will  bring  back  his  people  from  all  corners  of 
the  earth.  Before  the  Temple  was  rebuilt  '^  men 
received  not  the  reward  of  their  labours,  neither 
did  the  beasts."  There  was  no  safety  from  their 
enemies,  for  lahveh  set  men  one  against  another. 
Henceforth  all  shall  be  changed.  As  lahveh  had  set 
himself  to  bring  evil  on  his  people  who  of  old  had 
angered  him,  so  since  his  Temple  is  rebuilt  will  he 
turn  and  do  them  good.t  Judah  has  now  only  to 
observe  one  law. 

Speak  ye  every  man  the  truth  with  his  neighbour  ;  exe- 
cute the  judgment  of  peace  and  truth  in  your  gates,  and  let 
none  of  you  imagine  evil  in  his  heart  against  his  neighbour, 
and  love  no  false  oath,  for  these  things  do  I  hate,  saith 
lahveh.  There  shall  come  peoples  and  the  inhabitants  of 
many  cities,  and  the  inhabitants  of  one  city  shall  go  to 
another,  saying  :  Let  us  go  speedily  to  entreat  tlie  favour 
of  lahveh,  and  to  seek  lahveh-Sabaoth:  saying,  I  will  go 
also.  Yea,  many  peoples  and  strong  nations  sliall  come 
to  seek  lahveh-Sabaoth  in  Jerusalem,  and  to  entreat  the 
favour  of  lahveh.  Thus  saith  lahveh:  In  those  days  it 
shall  come  to  pass  that  two  men  shall  take  hold  out  of 

*  That  is,  every  one  shall  live  to  be  old.     See  vol.  iii.  p.  397.     The 
plays  of  the  children  shall  not  be  interrupted, 
f  Zechariah  viii.  14,  15. 


22  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

all  the  languages  of  the  nations  of  the  skirt  of  him  that  is 
a  Jew,  saying  :  We  will  go  with  you,  for  we  have  heard 
that  God  is  with  you. 

In  this  passage  occurs  for  the  first  time  the  em- 
ployment of  the  word  "  lehoudi  "  as  a  name  desig- 
nating a  religion.  The  word  ^'  Jew  "  from  that  day 
forth  made  its  entrance  into  the  world.  Zechariali 
was  right.  The  religion  of  the  Jew  was  to  become 
the  religion  of  mankind.  Yet  a  little  w^iile,  and 
all  the  people  of  the  earth  should  be  Judaised. 


CHAPTER   III. 

LEVITES. NETHINIM. 

The  completion  and  final  dedication  of  the  second 
Temple  took  place  516  b.  c.  Several  passages  in 
the  Psahns  probably  refer  to  this  solemn  occasion. 
Though  the  general  poverty  of  the  people  was  ex- 
treme, great  pomp  was  displayed  ;  for  the  lévites  were 
numerous.  The  hasidim,  as  they  were  called,  appear 
occasionally  to  have  been  counted  as  priests  ;  ^  what 
we  read  of  them  reminds  us  of  the  crowd  of  inferior 
clergy  who  clustered  round  cathedrals  in  the  Middle 
Ages.  The  priestly  vestments  had  been  in  use  ever 
since  the  first  days  of  the  restored  worship.!  Music, 
in  the  unoccupied  hours  of  a  leisure  life,  had  made 
great  progress.^  The  musicians  were  organised  into 
bands,  under  banners  bearing  mythical  names  taken 
from  the  writings  of  old,  as  Asaph,  Heman,  Ethan. § 
The  different  choirs  seem  to  have  performed  their 
music  in  parts  in  a  very  scientific  way.     The  musical 

*  Psalm  cxxxii.  9,  16. 

t  See  p.  91. 

t  1  Chronicles  ix.,  xv.,  xxv.  It  is  hard  to  be  exact  on  this  difficult 
subject  ;  for  the  imagination  is  apt  to  refer  much  that  belonged  only 
to  the  service  of  the  second  Temple  to  the  first. 

§  Jeduthan  is  an  error  for  Ethan,  the  alej)h  sometimes  being  softened 
in  T. 


24  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

terms  invented  at  this  period  have  come  down  to 
us,*  but  they  are  little  more  than  enigmas,  in  which 
one  can  only  conjecture  the  parts  assigned  to  tenor, 
barytone,  and  soprano.  The  orchestra  consisted  of 
stringed  instruments  {cinnor,  nehel),  and  wind  instru- 
ments, as  the  hautboy,  flute,  and  sundry  kinds  of 
trumpets,  which  were  accompanied  by  tambourines, 
cymbals,  shawms,  triangles,  and  castanets.  Anti- 
phone  and  response  were  one  of  the  most  favourite 
forms  of  melody.  The  people  took  part  in  the  ser- 
vice by  joining  in  refrains,  and  by  words  of  assent, 
like  Amen. 

This  w^as  the  origin  of  that  splendid  worship  which 
grew  up  around  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem  to  a  mar- 
vellous degree  of  solemnity,  and  w^iich  all  Christian 
liturgies  took  for  their  model  from  the  fourth  century 
through  the  Middle  Ages.  This  form  of  worship 
was  not,  as  is  generally  supposed,  that  of  the  first 
Temple,  but  the  worship  of  the  second.  The  Psalms 
of  praise  used  in  the  liturgy  which  the  Christian 
Church  has  so  nobly  incorporated  into  its  services, 
almost  all  date  from  this  period.  They  were  the 
poetry  of  the  lévites.  Those  poor  liasidim,  frequently 
half  starved,  were  great  artists  ;  they  created  the  lit- 
urgy, —  that  fruitful  mother  of  many  arts  in  the  re- 
ligious ages.  The  habit  of  composing  hymns  trained 
these  poor  people  to  a  certain  facility  in  verse  ;  so 
that  a  large  part  of  the  book  of  Psalms  was  the 
work  of  men  little  better  than  beggars,  who  lived 

*  Titles  of  the  Psalms;  Habakkuk  iii.  ;  1  Chronicles  xv.,  xvi. 


LE  VITES.  —  NE  THINIM.  25 

upon  what  charity  might  give  them  from  the  offer- 
ings in  the  Temple,  and  were  frequently  in  the 
depths  of  destitution.*  The  Catholic  clergy  later 
took  delight  in  this  melancholy  literature,  in  which 
they  found  their  own  secret  feelings  of  sadness  and 
resignation  expressed. 

The  singers  {mesorerim)  had  in  this  family  of  the 
servitors  of  the  public  worship  a  somewhat  superior 
position.  After  them  came  the  porters  {soarim), 
h  ad  jibs,  who  kept  the  gates  of  the  Temple  ;  last  of 
all  were  the  netinim  (devoted  from  their  birth  to  the 
service  of  the  sanctuary),  the  "  serfs  of  Solomon.'' 
They  were,  in  fact,  serfs  of  the  Church,  slaves  of 
the  lévites, t  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water, 
mostly  of  foreign  origin,  |  first  given  to  God  for 
the  harder  labours  of  his  services,  when  his  cause 
was  victorious,  but  grown  happy  in  a  servitude  which 

*  See  Psalms  vii.,  ix.,  xiii.,  xxi.,  xxvi.,  xxvii.,  xxviii.,  xxxv,,  xl., 
xliii.,  lii.,  Ivii.,  lix.,  Ixiii.,  Ixix.,  Ixxi.,  Ixxiii.,  Ixxv.,  xcv.-c,  cix., 
cxxxviii.     Note  the  expressions,  — 

D^hSk  'XT. 

ynSx  'lypD, 

It  is  impossible  to  make  a  strict  distinction  between  Psalms  written 
during  the  first  century  after  the  building  of  the  second  Temple,  and 
those  composed  in  the  days  of  Josiah. 

t  Ezra  viii.  20.  %  See  vol.  iii.  p.  422. 


26  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

gave  them  ample  leisure.  All  these  made  up  a  world 
curiously  mixed,  active  and  powerful  by  reason  of  its 
numbers  and  its  poverty,  which  further  increased  the 
band  of  ancient  anavim.^  These  men  —  God's  poor 
—  believed  that  the  reign  of  lahveh  would  be  their 
day  of  triumph.  The  poverty  of  Israel  was  fruitful  ; 
a  whole  world  of  poetry  has  grown  out  of  it.t  Love 
for  God's  house,  delight  in  his  worship,  the  happi- 
ness of  dwelling  in  his  courts,  of  being  fed  from  his 
hand,  of  looking  upon  themselves,  poor  as  they  were, 
as  superior  to  the  rest  of  mankind,  —  all  these  things 
began  to  show  themselves  faintly  in  the  days  of 
Hezekiah,!  and  were  developed  in  the  poor  lévites 
after  the  return  from  Babylon.  The  clerical  spirit 
strikes  always  deep.  He  who  has  once  said  Dominus 
pars  hcereditatis  mece  is  no  longer  like  other  men. 
Let  laymen  beware  ! 

The  inferior  clergy,  having  no  employment  outside 
the  Temple  service,  found  often  reasons  of  com- 
plaint against  the  priests  of  the  house  of  Zadok,  who 
frequently  oppressed  their  servitors,  and  withheld 
what  w^as  due  to  them.§  The  martyr  wail  that  so 
frequently  arises  in  the  Psalms,  the  indignation  of 
the  liasid,  who  is  compelled  to  remain  poor  w^hile 
the  proud  Sadducean  priest  enjoys  prosperity  and 
riches,  may  have  been  the  expression  of  bitter  cleri- 

*  See  vol.  iii.  p.  31  and  what  follows. 

t  Psalms  xxiii.,  xxv.,  xxvii.,  xlii.,  xlvii ,  Ixxi.,  Ixxiv.,  cxii.,  cxlvii. 
X  See  vol.  iii.  p.  29. 

§  2  Chronicles  xxxi.    (retrospective)  ;   Nehemiah  x.  2d  part,  xii., 
xiii. 


LE  VITES.  —  NE  THINIM.  27 

cal  hatreds.  Let  us  imagine  the  singers  and  the  ser- 
vitors forming  a  party  against  the  priests.  With  us 
such  an  alliance  would  end  in  scenes  like  those  in 
the  Lutrin  of  Boileau.  In  Israel  it  concerned  great 
social  questions.  Of  all  democracies  the  most  dan- 
gerous is  a  democracy  of  saints  more  pious  than 
their  priests,  despised  by  the  official  clergy  and  by 
the  middle  classes,  but  avenging  themselves  upon 
the  former  by  their  superior  sanctity.  The  assertion 
that  God  is  the  defender  of  the  poor  ;  that  he  loves 
the  poor  best  of  all  his  creatures  ;  that  poverty  is 
a  title  of  honour  in  his  sight  ;  that  when  God  helps 
the  poor  he  glorifies  his  name,*  —  involves  a  mute 
attack  upon  the  established  order  of  things.  The 
cause  of  the  poor  being  thus  identified  with  that  of 
God,  the  door  is  opened  for  recriminations  of  the 
boldest  kind  among  a  people  who  do  not  hold  that 
the  compensations  of  divine  justice  are  carried  over 
to  another  life. 

What  made  the  situation  particularly  serious  was 
that  the  lévites  were  united  in  close  brotherhood,! 
and  formed  a  powerful  community,  a  sort  of  church 
among  themselves. |  The  anavim  were  brothers  § 
living  together,  bound  by  ties  of  affection  and  famil- 
iarity, lahveh  nourished  them  in  the  courts  of  his 
house,  out  of  the  superfluities  of  his  feasts.  ||  It  was 
among  such  in  after  years  that  Jesus  would  dwell. 

*  Psalms  xi.,  cix.  f  Psalm  xxii. 

t  D'pnï  mv,  D"^w\  pnv  nn,  nin^  'iy"n  in   See  Psalm  xiv.  (liii.), 
xxiv. 

§  Psalm  xxii.  27  and  what  follows.  ||  Psalm  cxxxiii. 


28  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL. 

The  poor  love  each  other.  Among  them  through 
all  centuries  are  those  who  have  sung  cheerfully  the 
verse  of  the  canticle,  — 

Ecce  quam  bonum  et  quaui  jucundum 
Habitare  fratres  in  unum. 

Thus  in  Jerusalem  was  formed  in  the  latter  years 
of  the  sixth  century  b.  c.  a  whole  people  of  priests, 
very  different  from  the  religious  orders  of  the  Middle 
Ages  ;  since  a  rigorous  rule,  and  a  hierarchy  upheld 
by  the  secular  arm,  did  not  coerce  them.  The  sing- 
ers in  particular  grew  more  numerous  than  were 
needed  for  the  Temple  service  ;  and  as  residence  in 
Jerusalem  *  was  not  thought  particularly  desirable, 
they  frequently  found  quarters  for  themselves  out- 
side the  city,  —  at  Netophah  near  Bethlehem,  at 
Beth-Gilgal,  and  in  the  country  round  Geba  and  Az- 
mabeth.  There  they  built  hacerim  or  villce,  humble 
hamlets  wdiere  they  lived  apart,  no  doubt  cultivating 
the  land  around  them.  Hymns  could  not  but  be 
born  in  so  singular  a  situation.  The  necessity  of 
making  pilgrimages  to  Jerusalem  gave  occasion  to 
pleasant  periodical  journeys.  The  Sire  ham-maaIoth\ 
were  probably  composed  at  this  period.  These 
"songs  of  degrees"  are  little  poems  perfect  in  form, 
delightful  as  poetry,  having  a  religious  charm  which 
has  made  them  the  delight  of  all  ages.  They  were 
sung  either  in  chorus  or  in  alternate  verses,  wdiich 

*  Nehemiah  xii.  28,  20. 

t  Cantica  graduum.     The  origin  of  this  name  is  unknown. 


LE  VITES.  —  AE  THINIM.  29 

accounts  for  their  repetitions,*  the  employment  of 
the  same  words,  the  crossing  and  recrossing  of  cer- 
tain passages,  the  apparent  transpositions  of  parts 
of  phrases  which  have  been  observed  in  them.  The 
poverty-stricken  artists  who  created  such  gems  of 
language  and  of  feeling  were  assuredly  the  equals 
of  those  world-famous  poets  who,  at  about  the 
same  period,  were  composing  the  lyric  treasures  of 
Dorian  verse,  — the  masterpieces  of  Greek  genius 
in  poetry.t 

*  For  instance,  Psalm  cxxiv.  1,  2.     Besides  which,  copyists  have 

omitted  much.  . 

t  See  especially  Psalms  cxx.  to  cxxx  ,  all  exquisite  little  poems. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

TnE    EXD    OF    THE    HOUSE    OF    DAVID.  —  THE    TRIUMPH 
OF    THE    HIGH-PRIEST    OVER    THE    NASI. 

For  fifteen  or  twenty  years  Zerubbabel  appears  to 
have  exercised  the  authority  of  2b  nasi  ^  over  Israel, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  power  of  a  2^^Z:aA,  or  Per- 
sian governor,  in  Jerusalem,  without  much  difficulty 
or  opposition.  Haggai,  in  520,  puts  him  always  on  a 
par  with  Joshua  the  high-priest,  the  son  of  Josedeck, 
and  indeed  always  names  him  first.  In  his  last  utter- 
ances he  announces  that  in  the  midst  of  the  overthrow 
of  empires  which  is  at  hand  Zerubbabel  will  pass  in 
safety  through  the  flood,  t  God  has  taken  him  under 
his  protection.  He  has  put  his  signet-ring  upon  his 
finger,  —  that  is  to  say,  the  thing  most  personal  and 
precious  to  himself.  Zerubbabel  is  the  elect  servant 
of  God,  chosen  by  liim  to  rule  his  people. 

Another  poem  has  preserved  for  us  a  true  expres- 
sion of  the  feelings  of  the  legitimists  of  that  day, 
the  Hierosolymites,  whose  hopes  were  fixed  upon 
the  restoration  of  the  House  of  David  :  \  — 

*  For  the  conception  of  the  nasi  of  Israel  at  this  period  see  Ezekiel 
xii.,  xlv,,  xlvi, 

t  Hafjgai  ii.  20-23.     Cf.  Ecclesiasticiis  xlix.  11  and  what  follows. 

X  Psalm  cxxxii.  Cf.  1  Kinofs  xi.  34  and  what  follows.  It  is  very 
singular  that  Psalm  cxxxi.,   which  immediately  precedes  cxxxii.,  is 


THE  END   OF   THE  HOUSE   OF  DAVID,  31 

lahveh,  remember  for  David 

All  his  affliction,* 
How  he  s  ware  unto  lahveh 

And  vowed  unto  the  Mighty  One  of  Jacob: 
Surely,  I  will  not  come  into  the  tabernacle  of  my  house 

Nor  go  up  into  my  bed; 
I  will  not  give  sleep  to  my  eyes, 

Or  slumber  to  mine  eyelids, 
Until  I  find  out  a  place  for  lahveh, 

A  tabernacle  for  the  mighty  God  of  Jacob. 
Lo,  we  heard  of  the  same  in  Ephraim,  t 

We  found  it  in  the  field  of  the  wood.  X 
We  will  go  into  his  tabernacles, 

W^e  will  worship  at  his  footstool. 
Arise,  0  lahveh,  into  thy  resting-place. 

Thou  and  the  ark  of  thy  strength. 
Let  thy  priests  be  clothed  with  righteousness, 

And  let  thy  saints  shout  for  joy. 
For  thy  servant  David's  sake 

Turn  not  away  the  face  of  thine  Anointed. § 

And  the  answer  is  :  — 

lahveh  hath  sworn  unto  David  in  truth, 

He  will  not  turn  from  it  : 
Of  the  fruit  of  thy  body  will  I  set  upon  thy  throne. 

If  thy  children  will  keep  my  covenant. 
And  my  testimony  that  I  shall  teach  them, 

Their  children  also  shall  sit  upon  thy  throne  forevermore. 

attributed  in  the  Syriac  version  to  Joshua  the  son  of  Josedeck.  The 
Syriac  version  was  made  from  a  Hebrew  manuscript,  which  contained 
valuable  passages  that  are  omitted  in  the  received  text  (Ecclesiasticus). 
Cf.  2  Chronicles  vi.  41,  42.  In  general,  all  that  relates  to  the  second 
Temple  is  told  as  if  relating  to  the  first.  Parallelism  of  pii*  and  \^W 
(v.  9,  16)  is  characteristic  of  the  Deutero-Isaiah. 

*  mijj;.     Read  "piety." 

t  At  Shiloh.     Read  D^Sî*. 

X  At  Kirjath-Jearim  (or  Jaar  :  see  1  Chronicles  xiii.  5). 

§  Zerubbabel,  -  the  last  representative  of  the  kingly  power  of 
David. 


32  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL, 

For  lahveh  hath  chosen  Zion, 

He  hath  desired  it  for  his  habitation. 
This  is  my  resting-place  forever, 

Here  will  I  dwell:  for  I  have  desired  it. 
I  will  abundantly  bless  her  provision, 

I  will  satisfy  her  poor  with  bread. 
Her  priests  also  will  I  clothe  with  salvation 

And  her  hasidim  shall  shout  aloud  for  joy. 
There  will  I  make  the  horn  of  David  to  bud,* 

I  have  ordained  a  lamp  for  my  Anointed. f 
His  enemies  will  I  clothe  with  shame, 

But  upon  himself  shall  his  crown  flourish. 

Old  prophecies,  niisinterpreted,  increased  the  illu- 
sion, and  augmented  the  agitation  of  the  people. 
As  always  happens  in  a  time  of  great  calamity, 
chimeras  took  shape.  The  nation  dreamed  of  an 
ideal  Saviour,  a  perfected  David,  who  would  restore 
to  it  the  glory  of  its  former  years.  At  the  moment 
of  the  overthrow  of  Jehoiakim  (598)  Jeremiah  found 
comfort  in  the  thought  that  a  Branch  %  should  grow 
out  of  the  root  of  David, —  a  king,  wise  and  just, 
who  would  restore  prosperity  to  Israel.  §  Under 
Zedekiah,  towards  the  end  of  the  siege  (588),  he  uses 
almost  the  same  words  to  repeat  his  confidence  in 
these  invincible  illusions.  ||  These  passages,  like 
all  that  belongs  to  Jeremiah,  keenly  touched  the 
fancy.      Men   talked    mysteriously   in   those    days  ^ 

*  n'DV«,  an  allusion  to  nr3ï  of  Jeremiah  and  Zechariah.     See  subse- 
uently  pp.  37,  40,  &c. 
t  An  allusion  to  1  Kings  xi.  36;  xv.  1  ;  2  Kings  viii.  19;  2  Chroni- 
cles xxi.  7. 

t  noy.  §  Jeremiah  xxiii.  5. 

II  Jeremiah  xxxiii.  15.     See  vol.  iii.  p.  315. 

^  Zechariah.     See  subsequently  p.  35  and  what  follows. 


THE   END    OF   THE   HOUSE   OF  DAVID, 


33 


of  a  Semakli,  or  Branch,  who  would  appear  as  the 
Saviour  of  Israeh  Zerubbabel  for  a  time  seemed 
to  fulfil  these  expectations.  With  shades  of  dif- 
ference that  we  cannot  now  appreciate,  he  was  at 
the  close  of  the  sixth  century  b.  c.  to  the  faith- 
ful in  Israel  what  the  Comte  de  Chambord  has 
been  to  Legitimists  in  our  own  day.  His  death  or 
disappearance  is  a  matter  of  mystery.  We  know 
absolutely  nothing  of  his  end.  The  overthrow  of  the 
hopes  built  upon  him  by  his  nation  was  no  doubt  due 
to  the  Persian  authorities,  who  had  no  wish  to  en- 
courage local  semi-royalties  in  the  Persian  empire  ; 
and  we  cannot  but  own  that  the  anomalous  position 
of  the  heir  of  a  long  line  of  Jewish  kings  reduced  to 
the  position  of  a  sub-prefect^  could  not  last  long. 
Besides,  we  have  seen  ten  times  already  in  the  course 
of  this  history  that  the  destiny  of  Israel  was  not  to 
found  a  temporal  kingdom.  The  sacerdotal  party, 
w^hen  it  had  secured  its  triumph,  apparently  made 
haste  to  efface  all  traces  of  its  expulsion  of  the  ancient 
dynasty.  The  princes  of  the  House  of  David,  who 
up  to  this  time  had  been  both  rich  and  honoured 
in  the  land,  sink  out  of  sight,  and  apparently  have 
passed  into  neglect  and  poverty.  Zerubbabel,  after 
having  played  so  prominent  a  part  in  the  history 
of  his  people,  passes  suddenly  into  oblivion,  we 
know  not  how.  He  had  no  successor.  He  was, 
so  far  as  w^e  know,  the  sole  nasi.  After  him  the 
high-priest  takes  the  first  place  among  his  people, 

*  The  Persian  pekah  was  a  sort  of  under-satrap. 

VOL.  IV. —  3 


34  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

and  becomes  more  powerful  than  ever.  He  is  the 
real  Governor  of  Jerusalem.  We  have  lists  of  the 
high-priests*  thenceforth,  as  we  have  lists  of  kings 
preserved  elsewhere.  The  sacerdotal  nobility  jeal- 
ously guarded  its  privileges  ;  and  like  every  other 
nobility  its  claims  gave  rise  to  many  frauds.  Con- 
sequently a  sort  of  genealogical  register  was  kept  in 
Jerusalem  for  the  purpose  of  rectifying  errors.! 

How  did  so  important  a  revolution  take  place? 
Its  details  we  would  gladly  know.  Certain  things 
make  us  suspect  that  it  was  not  accomplished  without 
violence.  The  way  in  which  Haggai  clings  with 
passionate  ardour  to  Zerubbabel  would  seem  to  indi- 
cate that  the  power  of  the  nasi  was  in  his  time  being 
threatened.  ^yith  Zechariah  it  is  different.  His 
fourth  vision  \  is  certainly  a  very  strange  one. 
Joshua  the  son  of  Josedeck  stands  before  lahveh  clad 
in  filthy  garments  ;  Satan  §  stands  beside  him  to  ac- 
cuse him.  lahveh  will  not  hear  his  accusations,  not 
because  Joshua  is  innocent,  but  because  Jerusalem 
has  been  sufficiently  stricken,  has  suffered  from  con- 
flagrration.  Joshua  is  a  brand  snatched  from  the 
burning.  lahveh  makes  him  change  his  filthy  gar- 
ments II  for  priestly  robes.  A  clean  sanif  is  placed 
upon  his  head  ;   he  is  solemnly  clothed  (i.  e.  he  re- 

*  SnjmriDn  or  i^xin  pD.  This  function  was  introduced  retro- 
spectively in  the  legislation  attributed  to  Moses,  and  in  writings  in  the 
times  of  the  Kings. 

t  Josephus,  Against  A pion^  i.  7.  %  Chapter  iii. 

§  Compare  this  with  Satan's  part  in  the  book  of  Job. 

11  niySno  =  iuLU. 


THE   END    OF    THE   HOUSE    OF  DAVID. 


35 


ceives  investiture)  before  the  angel  of  lahveh,  and  is 
then  told  :  "  If  thou  wilt  walk  in  my  ways,  and  if 
thou  wilt  keep  my  charge,  then  thou  also  shalt  judge 
my  house  and  shalt  keep  my  courts,  and  I  will  give 
thee  a  place  among  those  that  stand  by.*  Hear 
now,  0  Joshua  the  high-priest,  thou  and  thy  men 
which  sit  before  thee  (for  they  are  men  that  are  a 
sign),  for  behold  I  will  bring  forth  my  servant  the 
Branch,  t  For  behold  the  stone  that  I  have  set 
before  Joshua,  upon  one  stone  are  seven  eyes.^  Be- 
hold I  will  engrave  the  engraving  thereof,  saith 
lahveh-Sabaoth,  and  I  will  remove  the  iniquity  of 
thy  land  in  one  day ..." 

It  is  very  difficult  for  us  to  comprehend  what  the 
Prophet  evidently  wished  not  to  reveal  clearly  to  his 
contemporaries.  Another  vision  is  a  little  less  unin- 
telligible. §  Zechariah  sees  a  candlestick  having 
seven  branches,  with  a  bowl  on  the  top  of  it  commu- 
nicating by  pipes  to  the  seven  lamps.  On  the  right 
side  and  on  the  left  are  two  olive-trees.  These  two 
olive-trees  are  the  two  Anointed  Ones  ||  wdio  stand 
beside  the  Lord  of  the  whole  earth."  They  are 
Zerubbabel  and  Joshua.  The  oil  proceeds  from  them, 
they  transfer  it  into  the  bowl  upon  the  candlestick, 
and  thence  it  is  distributed  into  all  branches  of  the 
family  of  Israel. 

*  The  angels. 

t  The  allusion  is  to  Jeremiah,  xxiii.  5;  xxxiii.  15. 

X  I  think  that  this  must  mean  seven  times  the  letter  am. 

§  Fifth  vision.     Chapter  iv. 

II  'yr\T  'ja. 


36  HISTORY  OF  THE   PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 

his  is  the  word  of  lahveh  unto  Zerubbabel,  saying  :  Not 
by  might  nor  by  power,  but  by  my  spirit,*  saith  lahveh- 
Sabaoth.  Who  art  thou,  0  great  mountain  ?  Before  Zerub- 
babel thou  shalt  become  a  plain  ;  and  he  shall  bring  forth  the 
head-stone  f  with  shoutings,  crying,  Grace,  grace,  unto  it. 

The  same  voice  adds, — 

The  hands  of  Zerubbabel  have  laid  the  foundations  of 
this  house  ;  his  hands  shall  also  finish  it.  .  .  .  For  who 
hath  despised  the  day  of  small  things  ?  For  they  shall 
rejoice  and  see  the  plummet  in  the  hands  of  Zerubbabel, 
even  these  seven  which  are  the  eyes  of  lahveh  ;  they  run 
to  and  fro  through  the  whole  earth. 

Then  comes  a  clearer  vision.  :j:  Three  rich  Jews 
from  Babylon  have  arrived  at  the  house  of  an 
Hierosolymite  :  — 

And  the  word  of  lahveh  came  unto  me  saying: 
Go  thou  into  the  house  of  Josiah  the  son  of  Zephaniah. 
There  thou  wilt  find  those  of  the  Captivity,  lleldai,  Tobi- 
jah,  and  Jediah,  who  have  come  from  Babylon.  Take  of 
them  silver  and  gold,  and  make  crowns  and  set  them 
upon  the  head  of  Joshua  the  son  of  Jehozadak  the  high- 
priest  ;  and  speak  unto  him,  saying.  Behold  the  man  whose 
name  is  the  Branch,  and  he  shall  grow  up  out  of  his 
place,  and  he  shall  build  the  Temple  of  lahveh,  even  he 
shall  build  the  Temple  of  lahveh,  and  he  shall  bear  the 
glory,  and  shall  sit  and  rule  upon  his  throne  ;  and  he  shall 
be  a  priest  upon  his  throne,  and  the  counsel  of  peace  shall 
be  between  them  both.  And  the  crowns  shall  be  to  Heldai 
and  to  Tobijah  and  to  Jediah  and  to  Hen  the  son  of  Zepha- 
niah, for  a   memorial    in   the   Temple    of   lahveh.      And 

*  The  spirit  of  God,  symbolized  by  the  oil. 

t  The  stone  that  crowns  the  edifice  ;  perhaps  it  has  a  figurative 
meaning. 

X  Zechariah,  vi.  9  and  following  verses. 


THE  END   OF  THE  HOUSE   OF  DAVID.  37 

they  that  are  afar  off  shall  come  and  build  in  the  Temple 
of  Tahveh,  and  ye  shall  know  that  lahveh-Sabaoth  hath 
sent  me  unto  you. 

If  this  passage  has  come  down  to  us  as  Zechariah 
wrote  it,*  it  is  certainly  very  strange.  Zerabbabel 
is  not  mentioned  at  all  as  taking  part  in  rebuilding 
the  Temple.  The  whole  glory  of  the  w^ork  —  at  least 
of  its  completion  —  is  assigned  to  Joshua,  who  now 
seems  to  unite  royalty  and  priesthood.  He  is  cohen, 
or  priest,  upon  his  throne,  and  suddenly  assumes  the 
rank  of  Semakh,  or  Branch.  It  has  been  conjectured 
that  the  cause  of  this  change  was  some  revolution, 
possibly  effected  by  gold  brought  from  Babylon.  To 
this  supposed  revolution  some  have  attributed  the 
well-known  Psalm, t  w^ritten  evidently  on  the  acces- 
sion of  a  sovereign  not  yet  honoured  by  the  title  of 
melek^  a  priest  forever  after  the  order  of  Melchize- 
dek,  adopted  by  lahveh  in  his  wrath  against  profane 
melakim,  whose  power  he  will  break.  The  Psalm 
appears  to  have  been  sung  by  two  choirs,  the  second 
choir  speaking  in  the  name  of  lahveh  :  — 

FIRST    CHOIR. 

lahveh  saith  unto  my  lord  :  Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand, 

SECOND    CHOIR. 

Until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool. 

*  This  is  very  doubtful.  DD'Jty  j'^  in  verse  13  is  incomprehen- 
sible if  the  name  of  Zerubbabel  be  not  in  what  precedes  it.  In  verse 
11,  r\nOi'  supposes  the  same  thing. 

t  Psalm  ex.,  the  most  difficult  of  all  the  Psalms  by  reason  of  the 
alterations  in  its  text  and  the  obscurity  of  its  allusions.  The  fact  that 
it  has  been  placed  among  the  Psalms  written  after  the  return  from 
Babylon  is  our  only  indication  of  the  circumstances  of  its  composition. 


38  HISTORY   OF   THE   PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL. 

FIRST    CHOIR. 

lahveh  shall  stretch  forth  the  rod  of  thy  strength*  out  of  Zion. 

SECOXD    CHOIR. 

Rule  thou  in  the  midst  of  thine  enemies. 

FIRST    CHOIR. 

The  people  will  bring  thee  freewill  offerings  t 
In  the  day  of  thy  power, 
In  the  glory  of  thy  holy  place.  Î 

SECOND    CHOIR. 

In  my  womb  T  have  conceived  tliee.§ 

FIRST    CHOIR. 

lahveh  s  ware  and  will  not  repent. 

SECOND    CHOIR. 

Thou  art  a  priest  forever,  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek.  (j 

FIRST    CHOIR. 

The  Lord  [Adonai]  at  thy  right  hand 
Shall  strike  through  kings  in  the  day  of  his  wrath. 

*  Thy  sceptre. 

t  The  text  of  verse  3,  as  understood   by  the  Greek  translators, 
seems  better  than  the  Massoteric  version. 
X  Cf.  Psalm  xxix.  2,  — 

Thy  people  offer  themselves  willingly 
In  the  day  of  thj'  power 
In  the  beauties  of  holiness. 

Eeviaed  Version. 
§  From    the  womb    of  the   morning   thou  hast  the  dew  of  thy 
youth.  —  Revised  Version  (Trans.). 

This  verse  is  imitated  from  Psalm  ii.  7.     nni^D  is  a  mar<:jinal  varia- 
tion for  DmD;  the  four  letters  hlDl^h  were  wanting  in  the  manuscript 
of  the  Greek  translators.    There  seems  to  be  some  transposition.     The 
original  reading  may  have  been  ymS'  'DmD. 
II  An  allusion  to  Genesis  xiv. 


THE  END   OF  THE  HOUSE   OF  DAVID.  39 


SECOND    CHOIR. 


The  Lord  [Adonai]  shall  judge  the  nations,   he  shall  fill   the 

places  with  dead  bodies, 
He  shall  strike  through  the  head  m  many  countries! 


BOTH    CHOIRS. 


He  shall  drink  of  the  brook  in  the  way; 
Therefore  shall  he  lift  up  his  head.* 

Of  course,  all  this  does  not  amount  to  a  certainty. 
Did  Joshua  the  son  of  Josedeck  inherit  all  the  power 
of  Zerubbabel  ?  After  the  disappearance  of  Zerubba- 
bel  was  the  popular  idea  of  the  Scmakli^  or  Branch, 
transferred  to  priests  of  the  house  of  Zadok  ?  t  We 
are  so  entirely  ignorant  of  all  that  was  passing  in 
Jerusalem  at  this  period  that  we  hardly  dare  ven- 
ture even  on  conjectures.  Jewish  historiographers 
have  chosen  that  this  episode  should  remain  dark, 
and  they  have  succeeded.  Two  things  only  are 
clear  :  first,  that  Zerubbabel,  by  death  or  in  some 
other  w^ay,  fell  from  power  shortly  after  the  Tem- 
ple was  completed,  or  just  before  ;  ij:  secondly,  that 
his  descendants  became  obscure  private  individuals,  § 
while  we  have  a  list  of  the  descendants  of  Joshua 
as  a  line  of  hereditary  sovereigns.  ||  Joshua  was 
succeeded  by  his  son  Joiakim,  he  by  his  son  Eliashib, 

*  An  allusion  we  do  not  understand. 

t  The  passage  in  Zechariah,  given  on  p.  21,  would  lead  us  to 
suppose  so;  but  the  text  is  strongly  suspected  of  alteration. 

X  According  to  some  Jewish  traditions  Zerubbabel  returned  to 
Babylonia.     Derenbourg,  Palestine,  p.  18  and  what  follows. 

§  1  Chronicles  iii.  19  and  what  follows  (to  ssy  nothing  of  the  two 
genealogies  of  Christ,  in  some  places  possibly  fictitious). 

II  Nehemiah  xii.  10  and  what  follows.     This  list  is  defective. 


40  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

whom  we  shall  find  to  have  been  contemporary  with 
Nehemiah.*  The  priesthood  was  more  and  more 
held  to  be  the  appanage  of  the  mythical  brother  of 
Moses.  The  office  of  high-priest  was  hereditary  by 
right  divine.  All  priests  were  sons  of  Aaron  ;  the 
high-priest  descends  from  him  in  direct  line  by  order 
of  birth.  This  feeling  was  kept  up  by  the  circula- 
tion of  writings  in  which  theocratic  authority  was 
far  more  strongly  insisted  on  than  in  the  ancient 
scriptures.  Old  versions  were  retouched  to  con- 
form to  the  sacerdotal  reorganisation  of  the  nation, 
and  a  constitutional  theocratic  authority  was  cen- 
tralised in  the  house  of  Aaron. 

A  sort  of  second  legitimacy  was  thus  formed  in 
place  of  that  of  the  now  displaced  House  of  David. 
The  high-priest  became  the  leader  of  the  nation. 
His  power,  transmitted  from  father  to  son,  from 
lirst-born  to  first-born,  ennobled  the  whole  family, 
and  gave  to  the  brother  of  the  high-priest  the 
right  even  to  ascend  the  steps  of  the  high  altar. t 
The  record  of  the  genealogy  of  the  high-priests  is 
preserved  in  official  documents,  which  come  down  to 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus.  Tithes  gave 
wealth  and  strength  to  the  new  power.  Israel  had 
ceased  to  be  a  nation  ;  it  became  an  ecclesiastical 
community.  Jerusalem  gives  the  first  example  of 
the  materializing  of  a  spiritual  power.     The  Rome 

*  Nehemiah  iii.  1  ;  xiii.  1. 

\  Josephus,  Antiquitie.t,  xi.  viii.  2. 


THE  END   OF  THE  HOUSE   OF  DAVID. 


41 


of  the  Papacy  there  found  a  model  which  in  lordly 
fashion  it  imitated  in  after  years. 

It  is  certainly  very  strange  that  the  official  record 
of  the  descendants  of  David  should  have  broken  off 
thus  suddenly  and  silently,  and  that  not  one  word 
of  complaint  or  of  regret  should  have  come  down 
to  us.  Some  critics  have  thought  that  such  feelings 
are  embodied  in  certain  Psalms  in  which  they  fancy 
they  can  detect  covert  reproaches  to  lahveh  for  hav- 
ing abandoned  the  family  of  the  man  after  his  own 
heart,  whom  he  had  chosen  to  be  king.  Such  is 
Psalm  Ixxxix.,  whose  author  seems  to  have  himself 
belonged  to  the  House  of  David,  and  sadly  recalls 
to  the  mind  of  lahveh  the  forlorn  situation  of  his 
faithful  ones,  while  he  looks  forward  to  their  resto- 
ration. This  Psalm  has  been  attributed  to  Zerub- 
babel,  or  to  one  of  his  descendants.  It  is  certain 
that  the  Psalms  written  at  this  period  contain  many 
personal  allusions.  We  have  already  spoken  of  the 
touching  Psalm  "  Lord,  remember  David,"  *  and  how 
strange  it  is  to  find  next  to  it  in  the  Psalter  t  a 
little  prayer  attributed  to  Joshua  the  son  of  Jose- 
deck,  which  seems  like  a  protest  on  his  part  against 
accusations  made  against  him  of  inordinate  ambition. 

The  oblivion  into  which  the  House  of  David  so 
suddenly  fell  need  not  take  us  by  surprise.  Except 
four  or  five  good  kings,  the  dynasty,  according 
to  the   pietists,   had  contained  nothing  but  wicked 

*  Psalm  cxxxii.     See  p.  31. 

f  Psalm  cxxxi.     Note  the  Syriac  title. 


42  HISTORY  OF   THE   PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

ones.  The  latter  kings  of  Jerusalem,  those  who 
came  after  Josiah,  were  anathematised  by  Jeremiah 
and  his  school.  Ezekiel  in  liis  visions  rarely  men- 
tions legitimacy,  or  the  House  of  David.  In  short, 
the  Prophets  seem  to  have  thought  little  about  the 
dynasty  of  David  or  the  Temple.  In  their  ideal 
pictures  of  Messiah's  reign  they  never  predict  that  a 
descendant  of  David  shall  bear  rule  in  Jerusalem 
when  the  whole  world  flocks  thither  to  do  homao:e  to 
lahveh.  Many  Jewish  puritans  would  have  willingly 
left  the  Temple  in  its  ruins,  believing  that  God 
dwelleth  in  the  heavens,  and  that  all  the  beasts  of 
the  earth  are  his,  before  any  are  offered  to  him  in 
sacrifice.  That  view  it  w^as  not,  however,  possible 
to  accept.  The  second  Temple  rose.  Feeble  efforts 
to  restore  the  prestige  of  David  availed  little.  It 
was  not  until  the  last  days  of  the  Maccabees,  or 
rather  in  the  times  of  the  Herods,  that  the  idea  is 
seen  to  spring  up  that  the  Messiah  was  to  be  a 
son  of  David,  and  pains  w^ere  then  taken  to  recon- 
struct genealogies  of  that  line,  and  to  discover  those 
lineal  descendants  of  David  wdio  (it  was  said)  for 
centuries  had  lived  forQ;otten  and  unknown.  The 
Asmoneans,  it  is  well  known,  were  noway  descended 
from  David,  and  made  no  attempt  to  usurp  a  title 
upon  that  ground. 

The  power  of  the  high-priest  seems  not  to  have 
been  considered  political  in  any  way  by  the  Persian 
government.  There  were  always  in  Jerusalem,  be- 
sides the  high-priest,  who  exercised  authority  over 


THE  END    OF  THE  HOUSE   OF  DA  VI D. 


43 


the  Jews,  a  Persian  jjekah  *  appointed  b}^  the  court  at 
Susa.t  It  is  probable  that  Jerusalem  was  a  sort  of 
secondary  sub-prefecture,  forming  part  of  the  whole 
government  of  the  Trans-Euphrates.  The  residence 
of  the  pekah  at  Jerusalem  was  near  the  corner-gate, 
on  the  spot  where  the  Tower  of  Hippicus  was  after- 
wards built,  now  the  Kalaa.  The  high-priest  lived 
in  the  Temple.  The  palaces  of  the  ancient  kings, 
which  were  south  of  the  Temple,  lay  in  ruins.  To 
have  restored  them  and  inhabited  them  would  assur- 
edly have  been  considered  an  act  of  rebellion  by  the 
Persian  government. 

Jerusalem  in  the  days  of  Darius  and  Xerxes  must 
have  been  a  strange  little  city,  —  a  city  of  priests, 
prophets,  and  lévites,  of  everything  except  real 
citizens.  In  Greece,  the  period  of  which  we  treat 
was  that  of  the  three  hundred  Spartans,  and  of 
Marathon,  Miltiades,  and  Cimon.  There  were  but 
few  prophets  after  Haggai  and  Zechariah.  There 
was  nothing  left  but  a  temple  with  its  priests  and 
its  underlings,  not  very  unlike  the  heathen  temples 
of  that  age  at  Gebel,  Tyre,  and  Cyprus. |  From  that 
time  forth  there  was  no  attempt  to  combat  an  invad- 
ing idolatry  ;  monotheism  reigned  undisputed  in  Jeru- 
salem.§     A  secular  civilisation  was  destroyed  there 

*  The  pelah  of  Jerusalem  exercised  authority  under  a  satrap,  who 
had  a  fixed  residence  elsewhere. 

t  Malachi  i.  8.  The  case  of  Nehemiah  differed  only  in  that  he 
was  a  Jew. 

X  See  Corpus  inscr.  semit.,  1st  Part,  Nos.  1, 10  and  the  following, 
86,  87. 

§  Ezra  ix.  and  what  follows. 


44  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

forever.  The  second  Temple,  like  the  first,  was  built 
by  Phœnician  workmen.  They  settled  afterwards  in 
the  city,  where  they  carried  on  trade  and  commerce, 
especially  in  provisions.*  The  grand  aspirations  of 
the  Prophets  seemed  forgotten.  Ritualism,  or  rather 
casuistry,  had  absorbed  all  things  into  itself.  The 
Torah  triumphed.  The  laws  regulating  religious 
observances  became  stricter  every  day.  It  is  easy 
to  perceive  what  fate  was  in  store  for  Israel. 

*  Nehemiah  xiii.  and  what  follows. 


CHAPTER   V. 

LEVITICAL     ADDITIONS     TO     THE     TORAH.  —  ELABORA- 
TION   OF    THE  RITES    OF    WORSHIP. 

The  Torah,  during  these  years  whose  history  is  so 
dark  to  us,  grew  by  many  additions.  We  have  seen* 
that  ever  since  a  period  prior  to  the  Captivity  there 
had  existed  in  writing  certain  laws  of  ritual,  certain 
Temple  customs.  More  than  one  arrangement  of 
the  liturgy  may  have  been  drawn  up  at  the  time  of 
the  return  from  Babylon. t  Many  ancient  practices 
had  fallen  into  disuse,  many  disputed  points  needed 
to  be  authoritatively  adjusted.  Priests,  about  the 
time  of  Ezekiel,  had  one  after  another  exerted  them- 
selves to  invent  a  Temple  service  as  brilliant  as  they 
had  seen  it  in  their  visions  or  their  dreams.  Such 
conceptions  must  have  exercised  great  influence  on 
the  restoring  of  the  Temple  worship.  The  people 
made  — and  above  all  they  imagined  — all  sorts  of 
splendours,  on  such  a  scale  as  their  poverty  would 
allow.  All  difficulties  were  disposed  of  by  insisting 
that  the  scale  of  this  magnificence  had  been  ordained 

*  See  vol.  iii.  pp.  52,  53,  159. 

t  Haggai  ii.  alludes  to  levitical  laws,  especially  Leviticus  vi.  20. 


46  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

by  Moses  in  his  lifetime  in  the  journey  through  the 
Wilderness.* 

The  period  of  Zerubbabel  and  Joshua  the  son  of 
Josedeck  was  poor  in  every*way.  The  writings  of 
Hatrtrai  and  Zechariah  show  such  lack  of  skill  that 
at  first  view  it  hardly  seems  probable  that  at  such 
a  moment  the  great  code  of  levitical  law^  could  have 
been  composed.  But  in  the  literary  work  of  those 
days  there  were  various  degrees  of  skill  required. 
Indeed,  w^e  may,  if  we  please,  suppose  Joshua  the 
high-priest  engaged  in  it,  and  we  may  not  be  wrong 
in  the  conjecture.  It  is  as  likely  to  be  true  as 
any  other. 

Conjectures  founded  on  probabilities  are  as  legit- 
imate as  conjectures  without  such  foundation  are 
intolerable.  Those  descriptions  of  the  sacerdotal 
garments,  for  example,  so  carefully  elaborated,  so 
minutely  detailed,  —  are  they  the  work  of  dreamers 
of  the  school  of  Ezekiel,  to  whom  it  cost  nothing 
to  manufacture  them  sparkling  with  jewels  ?  Or  are 
they  due  to  the  first  colonists  who  accompanied  Zerub- 
babel, and  comforted  themselves  in  their  poverty 
by  imagining  costly  vestments  made  splendid  by  all 
that  was  rich  and  rare  ?  Or  perhaps  should  we  rather 
refer  them  to  the  days  of  the  grand  religious  ceremo- 
nies brought  about  by  the  active  persuasions  of 
Nehemiah?  Who  can  tell?  The  levitical  laws  con- 
cerning   vows,t    those    relating   to    sacrifices,^    the 

*  Exodus  XXV.  and  what  follows. 

f  Leviticus  xxvii.  ;  Numbers  xxx.  %  Leviticus  i.-vii. 


LEVITICAL   ADDITIONS   TO    THE    TORAH.         47 

commands  respecting  sexual  relations,*"  laws  con- 
cerning what  was  clean  and  what  unclean,!  —  we 
cannot  be  sure  as  to  their  date.  All  we  can  say 
is  that  they  appear  to  belong  to  a  time  wdien  an 
anxious  casuistry  had  become  dominant  in  Israel. 

It  however  seems  as  if  the  lawgivers  of  the  Res- 
toration had  altered  very  little  as  to  important 
things.  They  drew  up  a  code  of  costumes  ;  they 
gathered  together  scattered  laws  that  had  remained 
unwritten. I  But  while  they  copied  ancient  texts 
they  not  unfrequently  added  to  them.§  Perhaps  it 
is  to  them  we  owe  the  strange  manner  in  which 
death  was  made  the  punishment  of  mere  infringe- 
ments of  ritual,  though  such  passages  may  have 
proceeded  from  the  pen  of  some  believer  in  a 
religious  Utopia,  who  scattered  his  penalties  here, 
there,  and  everywhere. 

These  years  after  the  return  may  also  have  been 
the  time  when  regulations  were  made  concerning 
feasts  and  pilgrimages  to  Jerusalem, ||  the  system  of 
which  is  more  complicated  in  the  levitical  code  than 
it  is  in  the  book  of  Deuteronomy  or  even  in  Ezekiel. 
Sacrifices  were  also  duly  regulated.  They  received 
technical  names  ;  ritualistic  observances  were  affixed 

*  Leviticus  xii.,  xv.,  xviii.  The  law  concerning  leprosy  was  most 
certainly  in  writing  in  the  days  of  the  first  Temple.  See  vol.  iii.  p.  52, 
note. 

f  Leviticus  xi.,  xii.,  xiii.,  xiv.,  xv.,  xviii.,  xxi.,  xxii. 

X  See  vol.  iii.  p.  52,  note  1. 

§  As,  lists  of  beasts  clean  and  unclean.     See  vol.  iii.  p.  52,  note  2. 

II  Leviticus  xxiii. 


48  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 

to  the  smallest  details  of  existence.  The  sacrifices 
were  no  longer  family  feasts.  The  victims  belonged 
almost  entirely  to  the  priests,  who  alone  seemed 
to  profit  by  them.  The  gift  of  prophecy  became 
limited  to  the  priesthood,  and  indeed  became  almost 
the  prerogative  of  the  high-priest.  Purity  of  heart, 
so  much  insisted  on  in  Deuteronomy,  became  only 
legal  purity  of  an  outward  kind.  Isaiah  and  the 
prophets  of  the  classic  period,  who  were  so  hostile  to 
sacrifices,  were  set  aside.  The  money  expended  to 
provide  victims  was  the  first  consideration.  Pharisa- 
ism, against  which  Jesus  directed  his  sharpest  darts, 
already  existed  in  all  its  essentials.  There  was 
never  a  more  striking  example  of  how  the  mere 
ceremonial  development  of  religion  leads  to  mate- 
rialism rather  than  to  progress. 

The  new  feasts  had  all  an  expiatory  character, 
which  put  them  far  below  their  old  character  of 
festivals  devoted  to  thanksgiving  and  joy.  The  lorn 
'kiliiniTim'^  (the  Kipj)Our  of  the  present  day)  and  the 
penitential  fasts  t  took  an  exaggerated  place.  The 
idea  of  expiation  (a  very  false  one,  for  the  only  way 
in  which  men  can  expiate  what  has  been  evil  on  their 
part  is  to  do  better  in  future)  always  opens  the  door 
to  abuse.  The  rite  concerning  the  ashes  of  the  red 
heifer  :j:  had  most  likely  provoked  the  ridicule  of 
the  Prophets  ;  but  now  it  was  taken  up,  consecrated, 

*  Exodus  xxix.  36;  xxx.  10,  16;  Leviticus  xxiii.  27;  xxv.  9. 
t  Leviticus  xvi.  1-34  ;  xxiii.  26-32  ;  Numbers  xxix.  7-12. 
X  Numbers  xix. 


LE  VI  TIC  AL   ADDITIONS   TO    THE    TO  RAH. 


49 


and  made  a  dogma.  It  was  the  same  with  the  law 
of  purification.  A  belief  in  Azazel^  was  almost  the 
sole  pagan  superstition  which  clung  to  the  Jews.  Is 
it  not  wonderful  that  a  people  which  had  spent  its 
strength  in  expelling  superstition  in  all  its  forms 
should  have  written  whole  pages  on  the  manner  in 
which  the  wretched  scape-goat  was  to  be  chased  into 
the  wilderness?  Religion  is  on  the  decline  when  it 
is  given  up  to  masters  of  ceremony  and  sacristans. 

Fasts  took  deep  root  in  the  old  religion  of  Israel, 
and  in  that  of  all  peoples  of  the  Semitic  race.f  All 
that  was  now  done  was  to  regulate  them.  But  the 
system  strengthened  in  the  popular  mind  one  of  the 
saddest  errors  of  lahvisni  ;  namely,  that  God  is  jeal- 
ous of  man,  and  is  glad  to  see  him  humbled.  The 
important  part  of  the  Semitic  som^  or  fast,  is  not 
abstinence  from  food,  but  humiliation,  sackcloth  and 
ashes,  the  dishevelled  hair,  the  disfigured  face. 

x\bout  this  time  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath 
and  the  rite  of  circumcision  became  the  very  basis 
of  Jewish  life.  In  scrupulous  observance  of  these 
things  men  forgot  the  fundamental  conditions  of 
true  piety.  They  did  as  the  peasant  does,  who  eats 
no  meat  on  Fridays,  and  goes  scrupulously  on  Sun- 
days to  mass,  but  continues  nevertheless  in  his  evil 
ways.  The  Passover  |  was  becoming  the  great  feast 
of  the  Jews.      The  rites  of  this  grand  public  cele- 

*  Leviticus  xvi. 

f  See  vol.  i.  p.  47;  vol.  iii.  p.  161. 

\  2  Chronicles  xxx.  ;   2  Esdras  i. 

VOL.   IV.  4 


50  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

bration  took  an  especial  character  of  national  solem- 
nity, not  unmixed  with  mysticism. 

The  laws  of  health  and  cleanliness  were  rightly 
a  matter  of  chief  attention  among  ancient  lawgiv- 
ers.* The  laws  that  forbade  certain  unwholesome  or 
filthy  meats  to  be  eaten  were  an  essential  part  of 
the  old  codes. t  The  swine,  which  almost  always 
transmits  disorders  in  the  East,  deserved  the  strict 
exclusion  w^hich  the  law  required,  at  a  time  when 
the  only  safe  remedy  against  sickness  was  a  rigid 
system  of  precautions.  The  additions  made  by  levit- 
ical  law  to  the  list  of  other  proscribed  animals  ij:  are 
naïve.  The  ideas  concerning  clean  and  unclean  were 
founded  at  first  on  what  is  really  clean  or  foul  ;  § 
they  responded  to  man's  inbred  feelings  of  refine- 
ment, to  those  disgusts  which  very  often  we  our- 
selves are  unable  to  account  for.||  Almost  all  na- 
tions in  the  East  exaggerate  these  distinctions,  and 
make  of  them  burthens  grievous  to  be  borne. 

The  levitical  code  was  in  the  daily  life  of  the  Jews 
the  cause  of  many  evils.^  Questions  about  clean  or 
unclean  became  the  source  of  endless  scruples  and  the 


*  See  vol.  i.  pp.  103,  104  ;  vol.  ii.  p.  311,  note  5. 

f  Compare  the  laws  of  otlier  nations  on  such  matters,  — the  codes 
of  Manou,  of  the  Zend-Avesta.     Herodotus  i.  140;  ii.  37. 

X  Leviticus  xi.  Compare  Deuteronomy  xiv.  Cf.  vol.  iii.  p.  52, 
note  2;  p.  53,  note  1,  &c. 

§  Tt  is  so  to  this  day  in  the  higher  castes  in  India. 

II  Strange  mixtures,  contacts  that  make  us  fancy  we  may  catch 
cutaneous  maladies  or  sores,  or  fermentations  generally  held  to  be 
disgusting. 

^  Leviticus,  from  chapter  xi.  to  xxii. 


LE  VI  TIC  AL  ADDITIONS   TO   THE    TOR  AH.         51 

most  minute  inquiries,  which,  especially  when  they 
had  relation  to  w^omen,  were  extremely  inconvenient. 
The  life  of  a  Jew  was  singularly  hedged  about  with 
restrictions.  It  is  true  that  sometimes  the  savin «* 
strength  of  a  religion  is  afforded  by  the  uncomfort- 
able obligations  it  may  impose.  The  more  onerous 
they  are  the  more  men  cling  to  them.  The  religions 
of  the  East  are  fenced  round  by  material  regulations 
and  prohibitions,  till  they  become  the  business  of 
men's  lives.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are  ruined  in 
the  end  by  such  restrictions,  men  being  isolated  by 
them  from  the  great  stream  of  human  progress. 
These  fatal  distinctions  between  clean  and  unclean 
have  made  society  impossible  in  the  East.  Society 
assumes  the  free  contact  of  individuals  ;  the  rules 
of  wdiich  we  speak  raise  barriers  of  separation  be- 
tween them.  The  Asiatic  world  accepts  these  pue- 
rile distinctions  of  religion  or  of  caste  ;  but  Europe 
will  have  nothing  to  do  with  them.  As  soon  as 
the  Jews  were  dispersed  throughout  Europe,  their 
levitical  law  prevented  their  free  contact  with  other 
individuals  of  the  human  race.  Judaism  will  never 
conquer  the  world  till  it  renounces  them,  —  that  is, 
till  it  becomes  Christianity,  such  as  Saint  Paul  con- 
ceived it,  without  circumcision,  without  distinctions 
of  separation  either  in  board  or  bed. 

The  Torah  thus,  as  it  were,  remained  incomplete 
during  the  later  years  of  the  sixth  century  b.  c. 
Those  who  accept  the  narratives  in  Ezra  as  authority 
make  the  end  of  the  labour  spent  upon  its  revision 


52  HISTORY  OF   THE   PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL. 

come  down  to  about  450  b.  c.  And,  indeed,  half  a 
century  is  no  long  time  in  which  to  suppose  so  great 
a  task,  attended  with  many  hesitations  and  inter- 
ruptions, could  have  been  accomplished.  It  would 
appear,  however,  that  the  additions  made  in  the 
time  of  Ezra,  if  indeed  there  w^ere  any,  were  not 
considerable,  and  that  no  essential  part  of  the  Torah 
is  of  later  date  than  the  year  500  b.  c.  No  attempt 
was  made  to  give  unity  to  what  resulted  from  this 
revision.  The  additions  seem  to  have  principally 
affected  the  levitical  code,  reduced  to  writing  during 
the  Captivity  ^  and  generally  believed  to  have  been 
given  on  Mount  Sinai. t  Creative  energy  had  died 
out  in  Israel.  The  fount  of  prophecy  had  run  dry. 
Meditation  on  the  Torah,  not  the  making  of  it,  was 
thenceforward  to  absorb  the  religious  activity  of  the 
nation.  The  second  Isaiah,  the  latest  and  most  in- 
spired of  the  ancient  Prophets,  was  perhaps  still  liv- 
ing when  some  pious  Israelite  composed  Psalm  cxix., 
that  mass  of  repetitions,  w^hich  rings  its  changes  on 
the  same  thoughts  through  twenty-two  times  eight 
verses,  the  octaves  corresponding  to  the  twenty- 
two  letters  of  the  Hebrew  alphabet,  each  verse 
containing  in  every  variety  of  synonym  praises, 
one  hundred  and  seventy-six  times  repeated,  of  the 
law  of  lahveh. 

All  the  legal  part  of  the  Torah,  which  is  relatively 
modern,  thousfh  far  inferior  in  moral  breadth  to  the 
Book  of   the   Covenants,    to    the   Decalogue,    or   to 

*  See  vol.  iii.  p.  340.  f  Exodus  xxiv.  16. 


LEVITICAL  ADDITIONS   TO    THE    TORAH. 


53 


Deuteronomy,  bad  in  one  way  an  importance  not 
belonging  to  tbe  older  books.  It  forged  the  chain 
that  Judaism  could  never  break,  which  on  the  con- 
trary it  has  used  its  best  efforts  to  make  heavier  and 
heavier.  The  first  founders  of  Christianity  threw  it 
off,  and  went  back  to  the  life-giving  record  of  Israel, 
—  that  wdiich  contains  the  spirit  of  the  Prophets. 
Christianity  was  the  teaching  of  the  second  Isaiah 
springing  to  life  after  an  interval  of  six  hundred 
years,  and  reacting  against  the  routine  of  centuries. 
But  routine  was  not  conquered.  The  fanaticism  en- 
gendered by  the  Torah  survived  all  attempts  to  kill 
it.  The  best  energies  of  the  race  were  engaged  in 
mad  squabbles  of  mere  casuistry.  The  Talmud,  that 
bad  book  which  to  this  day  is  the  evil  genius  of 
Judaism,  took  life  from  the  Torah,  and  then  in  great 
part  filled  its  place,  becoming  the  new  law  of  Juda- 
ism. It  has  been  said  that  Israel,  in  lack  of  other 
superstition,  created  a  new  superstition  out  of  the 
Torah.  The  desire  of  the  writer  of  Deuteronomy 
has  been  accomplished.  The  Law  has  become  the 
absolute  rule  of  life  to  Israel.  Each  Jew  has  it  for 
a  frontlet  between  his  eyes,  —  a  hypnotic  plaster. 
Ask  a  learned  Jew  at  what  hour  it  is  permitted  to 
study  Greek,  he  will  allow  none  to  be  lawful  but 
when  it  is  neither  day  nor  night;  '^  for  is  it  not 
\^ritten  of  the  Law,  Thou  shalt  meditate  thereon 
day  and  night  "  ? 

Worship  became  every  day  more  and  more  strangely 
complicated.      The  Sabbath  was  no  longer  merely  a 


54  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

day  of  rest  :  it  became  a  sort  of  Sunday,  a  weekly 
religious  festival,  having  its  especial  services.*  The 
daily  sacrifice  {tamid)  was  regulated.!  The  three 
prayers  a  day,  and  the  custom  of  kneeling  to  pray, 
date  possibly  from  this  period4  When  adopted  by 
the  Moslems  this  custom  became  like  rhythm  in 
Oriental  life,  scanned  as  it  w^ere  by  the  cry  of  the 
muezzin. 

Another  Jewish  custom  which  was  adopted  into 
Mahometanism  and  became  a  matter  of  great  im- 
portance was  the  practice,  when  out  of  Jerusalem, 
of  turning  towards  the  Holy  City  in  the  act  of 
prayer. §  Worshippers  thought  to  invite  a  sort  of 
electric  current  that  could  be  set  up,  as  they  ima- 
gined, if  they  should  open  their  windows  in  the 
desired  direction.  The  Samaritans  had  the  same 
habit  of  turning  towards  Mount  Gerizim.  ||  The 
practice  was  much  in  favour  among  Judaising 
Christians,  \  and  no  doubt  it  was  from  them 
that  Mahomet  adopted  it.  Mahomet  looked  upon 
the  Kibla  —  that  is,  the  act  of  turning  towards 
a  sacred  spot  in  prayer  —  as  essential  to  any  reli- 

*  Leviticus  xxiv.  8;  Numbers  xxviii.  9.  Cf.  1  Chronicles  ix.  32; 
2  Chronicles  xxxi.  3;  Nehemiah  x.  33  (Ezekiel  xlvi.  4). 

f  Numbers  xxviii.;  Daniel  viii.  11-13;  xi.  31. 

%  2  Chronicles  vi.  13;  Ezra  ix  5;  Daniel  vi.  11;  Acts  ii.  15;  iii.  1; 
ix.  40;  X.  9;  Luke  xxii.  41.     Cf.  1  Kings  viii.  54. 

§  2  Chronicles  vii.  34;  Daniel  /.  c;  2  Esdras  iv.  58.  Mischna, 
Beral-oth,  iv.  5,  6,  Tertullian,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Origen,  —  all 
speak  of  it  as  no  longer  the  custom. 

II   Epist.  Sichem.  ed.  Bruns,  p.  14  (Eichhorn,  Repert.,  ix.  9). 

t  Grig,  du  Christ.,  vol.  v.  pp.  52,  53,  461;  vol.  vi.  pp.  279,  280,  286. 


LE  vine  AL   ADDITIONS   TO    THE    TO  RAH.         55 

gion.  He  hesitated  some  time  as  to  his  choice, 
and  at  one  period  in  his  prophetic  career  adopted 
Jerusalem,  like  the  Judaising  Christians  his  masters.* 
But  at  last  the  Kaaba  decided  him  ;  and  Mecca,  five 
times  in  each  day,  became  the  central  spot  to  which 
the  whole  Mussulman  world  turns  in  prayer. 

The  Sabbath,  which  was  legally  sanctioned  by 
the  penalty  of  death,!  and  circumcision,  which  was 
obligatory,  :j:  became  at  last  terrible  burthens  because 
of  the  scruples  of  conscience  to  which  they  gave 
rise.  §  Before  the  Captivity,  no  correct  man  neg- 
lected these  duties  ;  but  afterwards  their  observance 
became  an  exaction  which  engendered  a  thousand 
inconveniences  and  a  thousand  perils.  Judaism 
became  a  powerful  vise,  which  threatened  to  crush 
all  within  its  grasp,  had  not  Jesus  and  Saint  Paul 
by  more  than  human  effort  succeeded  in  loosening 
its  grip,  returning,  as  the  elder  Prophets  had  aspired, 
to  the  worship  of  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 

*  Sprenger,  Das  Lehen  Mohammed.,  vol.  iii.  pp.  46,  47. 

f  Exodus  xxxi.  14  and  what  follows;  xxxv.  2;  Numbers  xv.  32  and 
what  follows.     Mischna,  Sanhedrim,  vii.  8. 

%  Leviticus  xii.  3. 

§  Exodus  XXXV.  3  (the  Jews  forbidden  to  light  fire  on  the  Sabbath). 
Later  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  gave  rise  to  the  wildest  casuistic 
reasoning  (The  Gospels;  Josephus;  Talmud). 


CHAPTER  VI. 

NEHEMIAH    AND    THE    WALLS    OF    JERUSALEM. 

While  this  labour  of  revision  silently  went  on  in 
Judea,  the  Jews  who  still  remained  in  the  East  went 
their  different  ways,  according  to  their  degrees  of 
piety.  Some  fell  away  from  day  to  day,  until  their 
religion  was  little  more  than  a  kind  of  deism.* 
Others  scrupulously  guarded  the  shrine  of  lahveh, 
and  took  great  interest  in  what  was  passing  at  Jeru- 
salem. It  was  decided  that  those  who  stayed  behind 
should  one  day  rejoin  the  pious  multitude  who  were 
already  singing  praises  to  lahveh  upon  the  hill  of 
Zion.  In  518  b.  c,  as  we  have  seen,  certain  Jews 
of  consequence,  residents  in  Babylonia,  bearing  fine 
Chaldean  names,  had  come  as  envoys  to  perform 
their  devotions  at  Jerusalem,  and  to  inquire  of  the 
elders  whether  now,  after  all  that  had  been  accom- 
plished, it  was  still  necessary  to  keep  the  Fast 
by  which  they  mourned  for  the  destruction  of  the 
Temple.t  About  the  same  time  rich  Babylonians 
brought  much  gold    to  Jerusalem,^  and  may  very 

*  The  Book  of  Jonah  possibly  proceeded  from  some  one  of  these 
persons.  Tliey  may  have  been  few,  but  they  certainly  existed.  See 
vol.  iii.  p.  420,  &c. 

f  See  what  came  before  p.  20. 

X  Zecharinh  vi.  9  and  what  follows. 


y 


NEHEMIAH  AND    THE  WALLS  OF  JERUSALEM.     57 

probably  have  played  a  part  in  the  overthrow  or 
banishment  of  Zerubbabel. 

In  some  respects  it  seems  that  the  Jewish  families 
who  had  remained  in  Babylonia  were  richer  and 
more  cultivated  than  those  who  had  decided  to  re- 
turn. The  study  of  the  ancient  Scriptures,  especially 
those  relating  to  the  Law,  was  in  these  orderly  retired 
families,  living,  apart  from  the  surrounding  popula- 
tion, certainly  carried  on  with  as  much  interest  as  in 
Jerusalem.  In  Babylon  they  possessed  more  pages 
of  the  ancient  writings  than  at  Jerusalem,  and  these 
were  commented  upon  with  ardour.  The  soferim  were 
numerous.  Associated  with  the  Priest  there  now 
begins  to  appear  the  Doctor,  or  Teacher,  called  in 
Hebrew  mehin, —  that  is,  ''he  who  expounds"  the 
Law.  It  was  a  sort  of  official  title.*  The  name  of 
sofer-maldr  t  ("  scribe,"  or  ''  ready  writer  "),  given  in 
allusion  to  a  verse  in  one  of  the  ancient  poems,  :j: 
implied  the  constant  habit  of  holding  the  pen,  which 
the  poverty-stricken  life  led  at  Jerusalem  would 
hardly  have  permitted.  Time  facilitated  this  state 
of  things.  Nearly  a  hundred  years  passed  before  the 
Eastern  Jew^s  ceased  to  send  fresh  reinforcements  to 
the  colony  at  Jerusalem,  composed  of  men  often  more 
enterprising  than  the  older  immigrants.  Great  in- 
tellectual and  moral  changes  took  place  during  this 
interval.  The  peace  of  the  Orient  during  the  long 
and  prosperous  reigns  of  Darius,  Xerxes,  and  Arta- 

*  1  Chronicles  xxvii.  32  ;  Ezra  viii.  16. 

t  Ezra  vii.  6.  t  Psalm  xlv.  1. 


S8  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

xerxes  Longiinanus,  gave  opportunity  for  steady 
sedentary  development.  There  was  not  much  inter- 
course between  the  Jews  and  Persia.  The  great 
evolutions  of  the  Iranian  religion  took  place  at  a 
later  period.  One  single  rite  was  borrowed  from 
Persian  custom,*  and  one  non-religious  festival,  that 
of  the  New  Year.t  Israel,  as  it  had  done  during  the 
days  of  its  Captivity,  shut  itself  up  in  its  own  lit- 
erature, in  its  own  past. 

The  proximity  of  the  central  power  under  the 
Achasmenian  kings  was  of  great  advantage  to  the 
Jews  of  the  East.  Susa  and  other  ancient  capitals 
were  fountains  of  favour  and  of  wealth,  of  which  the 
Jew  did  not  fail  to  take  advantage.  To  be  head  of 
a  great  feudal  house,  the  channel  by  which  every- 
thing came  in  and  everything  went  out,  was  a  posi- 
tion greatly  coveted.  High  posts  in  the  state  were 
open  only  to  men  of  the  conquering  race  ;  but  govern- 
ment had  many  employments  to  dispose  of  in  which 
the  Jewish  raia^  and  especially  the  ^ofer^  well  skilled 
in  the  Aramaic  script,  \  found  lucrative  employment 
for  his  industry.  It  was  thus  that  towards  the 
middle  of  the  fourth  century  a  certain  Nehemiah,  son 
of  Hachaliah,  a  very  pious  Jew,  found  a  career  in 
one  of  the  sub-prefectures.  In  the  year  445  b.  c.  he 
arrived  in  Judea,  from  the  Persian  court,  with  the 

*  See  what  follows  p.  140. 

t  The  names  of  the  angels,  Asmodeus,  &c.,  were  borrowed  at  a 
later  period.     The  demonology  of  Psalm  xci.  is  doubtful. 

X  Clermont-Ganneau,  Prévue  archdoL,  August,  1878,  pp.  93-107. 
Compare  Corpus  inscr.  semit.,  2d  part,  Nos.  144  and  the  following. 


NEHEMIAH  AND    THE  WALLS   OF  JERUSALEM.     59 

title  of  pekah  of  Jerusalem,  and  very  extended 
powers  committed  to  him,  as  he  said,  by  the  sover- 
eign at  Susa.*  His  arrival  was  very  welcome  to  the 
stricter  party  among  the  Jews;  for  Nehemiah,  like 
all  pious  men  bred  in  the  East,  belonged  to  the 
party  of  strictest  observance,  and  brought  with  him 
a  plan  for  very  conservative  reforms,  on  which  he 
had  already  determined. 

Nehemiah,  who  was  possibly  a  eunuch,!  had  made 
his  little  fortune  in  the  household  service  of  the 
court  in  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes  Longimanus.  Ac- 
cording to  the  recital,  which  seems  written  by  him- 
self, —  throughout  w^hich  one  feels  liis  desire  to  make 
himself  appreciated  according  to  the  ideas  of  his 
own  people  at  that  period,  —  he  had  been  the  king's 
cup-bearer,   and    while   exercising   the   functions  of 

*  There  exist  memoirs  of  Nehemiah,  in  which  Nehemiah  speaks 
in  the  first  person,  besides  what,  in  the  hands  of  the  author  of  Chroni- 
cles, has  come  down  to  us  as  the  Book  of  Nehemiah,  sometimes  called 
the  2d  Book  of  Ezra.  To  obtain  the  original  text,  we  must  cut  out 
chapters  viii.,  ix.,  x.,  which  formed  part  of  the  Memoirs  of  Ezra  (see 
on  that  subject  p.  85,  note  1  ;  94,  note),  and  some  additions  by  the 
writer  of  Chronicles,  in  chapter  xii.  1-26  and  44—47;  in  chapter 
xiii.  1-3.  The  style  of  Nehemiah's  Memoirs  has  its  own  peculi- 
arities; for  example,  he  never  uses  the  word  "lahv^eh."  The  au- 
thenticity of  this  narrative,  though  many  parts  of  it  seem  romantic,  is 
not  so  doubtful  as  that  of  the  memoirs  of  Ezra.  See  especially 
chapters  iii.,  vi.  If  there  has  been  any  imitation  between  the  memoirs 
of  Ezra  and  the  memoirs  of  Nehemiah,  it  is  the  writer  of  Ezra  who  has 
imitated  Nehemiah,  not  Nehemiah  who  has  borrowed  from  Ezra.  In 
after  years  the  Jews  strangely  added  to  the  power  and  importance 
of  Nehemiah.  He  and  Ezra  were  both  made  leaders  of  the  first 
return  to  Jerusalem  (2  Maccabees  i.  18.  Cf.  Eeclesiasticus  xlix.  13. 
Greek). 

f  See  later,  p.  89,  note  1. 


6o  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

that  office  found  means  to  serve  his  race.  Domestic 
service  was  in  the  Persian  empire,  as  it  has  always 
been  in  the  Ottoman  empire,  a  very  common  way 
of  attaining  administrative  employment.  On  the 
other  hand,  this  custom  of  arriving  at  some  high 
position  by  first  serving  in  a  menial  one  is  too  often 
found  in  Jewish  stories  of  the  same  period*  to  let 
us  accept  it  very  confidently.  The  cringing  nature 
of  Orientals  made  domestic  service  come  easy  enough 
to  them.  There  are  persons  in  our  own  day  willing 
to  claim  close  relations  with  a  king  or  with  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Republic  because  they  have  obtained  a 
letter  from  some  subordinate  official.  The  Jews 
were  proud  of  anything  which  apparently  brought 
them  into  connection  with  the  head  of  the  govern- 
ment ;  they  boasted  of  it  to  make  others  fancy  they 
were  powerful,  and  not  seldom  have  they  employed 
their  favour  to  injure  or  annoy  their  enemies. 

Among  the  official  powers  that  Nehemiah  de- 
rived, as  he  asserted,  from  the  King  of  Kings,  he 
had  one  that  his  countrymen  must  have  deemed 
inestimable  :  he  was  authorized  to  rebuild  the  walls 
of  Jerusalem.  Jerusalem  for  ninety  years  had  re- 
mained a  defenceless  city,  and  its  condition  often  led 
to  jeers  from  neighbouring  nations  very  irritating  to 
patriotic  Jews.  The  outline  of  the  former  walls  was 
still  traceable  by  a  long  line  of  great  detached  stones. 
There  were  places,  particularly  near  Siloam,  where 
the  ruins  of  the  walls  blocked  up  the  public  way,  but 

*  Daniel,  Zerubbabel  (Josephus,  Antiquities,  xi.  iii.  1). 


NEHEMIAH  AND    THE  WALLS   OF  JERUSALEM.    6i 

others  where  there  was  little  need  of  doino-  more 
than  to  repair  the  breaches.  Neliemiah  tells  us  him- 
self, if  his  memoirs  are  authentic,  of  his  first  night- 
visit  to  this  scene  of  ruin  -J^ — 

So  I  came  to  Jerusalem,  and  I  was  there  three  days. 
And  I  arose  in  the  night,  I  and  some  few  men  with  me  ; 
neither  told  I  any  man  what  my  God  had  put  into  my  heart 
to  do  for  Jerusalem  ;  neither  was  there  any  beast  with  me 
save  the  beast  that  I  rode  upon.  And  I  went  out  by  night 
througli  the  valley  gate,t  even  toward  the  dragon's  well, 
and  to  the  dung  gate,J  and  viewed  the  walls  of  Jerusalem 
which  were  broken  down,  and  the  gates  thereof  were  con- 
sumed with  fire.  Then  I  went  on  to  the  fountain  gate  and 
to  the  king's  pool  ;  §  but  there  was  no  place  for  the  beast 
that  was  under  me  to  pass.  Then  went  I  up  in  the  night 
by  the  brook,  and  viewed  the  wall  ;  and  I  turned  back 
and  entered  by  the  valley  gate,  and  so  returned. 

And  no  one  knew  whither  I  went,  nor  what  I  did  ;  nor 
had  I  yet  told  it  to  the  Jews,  nor  to  the  priests,  nor  to  the 
nobles,  nor  to  the  rulers,  nor  to  the  rest  that  did  the  work. 
Then  said  I  unto  them  :  Ye  see  the  evil  case  that  we  are 
in,  how  Jerusalem  lieth  waste,  and  the  walls  thereof  are 
burned  with  fire  ;  come  and  let  us  build  up  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem,  that  we  be  no  more  a  reproach.  And  I  told 
them  of  the  hand  of  my  God  which  was  good  upon  me,  as 
also  of  the  king's  words  that  he  had  spoken  to  me  ;  and 
they  said.  Let  us  rise  up  and  build.  So  they  strengthened 
their  hands  for  the  good  work. 

Nehemiah's  enterprise  could  not  be  otherwise  than 
disas^reeable  to   the    inhabitants  of    Samaria.     The 

*  Nehemiah  ii.  11  and  following  verses. 

f  The  present  Gate  of  Jaffa. 

X  At  the  southwest  corner  of  the  Eastern  Hill. 

§  The  Tool  of  Siloah. 


62  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

relations  between  this  people  and  the  Jews  continued 
to  be  strained.  The  wealthy,  the  chief-priests,  and 
those  who  were  about  them  would  willingly  have 
assented  to  a  reconciliation  of  the  two  branches  of 
the  worshippers  of  lahveh,  which  would  have  led  to 
intermarriage.  Notwithstanding  the  harsh  answer 
which  the  Samaritans  are  said  to  have  received  from 
Zerubbabel,*  the  entire  nation  was  not  by  any  means 
converted  to  intolerance.  There  were,  amongst  the 
Judean  nobles,!  large-hearted  men,  who  did  not 
think  that  their  fidelity  to  lahveh  demanded  hatred 
and  religious  exclusiveness.  Among  the  principal 
persons  in  Samaria  was  a  certain  Tobiah,  whose  son 
was  called  Johanan,  and  surnamed  "  officer  of  the 
Ammonites,"  probably  because  he  came  originally 
out  of  the  country  of  Am  mon.  The  names  of  these 
two  persons  indicate  that  they  were  worshippers 
of  lahveh,  but  assuredly  they  had  not  conformed  to 
the  pious  reforms  of  Josiah.  Now,  Tobiah  was  con- 
nected with  the  high-priest  Eliashib  ;  \  he  had  mar- 
ried the  daughter  of  Zechaniah,  son  of  Arach,  one  of 
the  leading  men  in  Jerusalem,  and  his  son  Johanan 
married  the  daughter  of  Mesullum,  the  son  of  Bere- 
chiah.  These  Hierosolymite  Jews  [men  who  loved 
the  rule  of  the  ancient  kings  better  than  that  of 
the  high-priest]  spoke  of  Tobiah  in  high  terms,  and 
sometimes  took  rather  a  malicious  pleasure  in  enlarg- 
ing upon  his  good  qualities  before  the  other  party, 

*  See  above,  p.  12.  +  Nehomiah  vi.  17.     miH'  nn. 

X  Nehemiah  xiii.  4. 


NEHEMIAH  AND    THE  WALLS   OF  JERUSALEM.     63 

who  considered  him  an  enemy  of  God.  Associated 
with  Tobiah  we  find  Sanballat,  the  Horonite,"^  a  rich 
man,t  who  seems  to  have  been  at  one  time  governor 
of  Samaria.  One  of  his  daughters  afterwards  mar- 
ried Joiada,  son  of  Eliashib,  who  was  high-priest 
after  his  father.  K  certain  Arabian  Sheik,  Geshem 
or  Gashmu4  appears  to  have  joined  with  Tobiah 
and  Sanballat  in  plans  for  retarding  the  new  work 
of  the  Jews.  One  can  see  that  the  priestly  aristoc- 
racy of  Jerusalem,  attracted  by  the  prospect  of  rich 
marriages,  had  become  very  tolerant  towards  the 
Samaritans.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  find  fanati- 
cism more  fierce  among  lay  zealots  than  among  the 
clergy. 

At  first,  when  Sanballat  and  his  friends  were  in- 
formed of  the  intentions  of  Nehemiah,  they  affected 
to  treat  the  matter  as  a  joke.  Sanballat  mocked  at 
the  idea  of  raising  those  mighty  stones  into  their 
place,  and  Tobiah  said  that  the  spring  of  a  jackal 
would  bring  down  their  stone  wall.  By  a  manoeuvre 
that  might  have  been  dangerous  to  themselves,  they 
affected  to  think  the  enterprise  denoted  an  intention 
to  revolt  against  the  Persian  government.  Nehemiah 
took  no  notice  of  all  this,  but  divided  the  circum- 
ference of  the  city  into  sections,  and  distributed  the 
work  to  the  principal  groups  of  the  population  of 
Jerusalem  and  its  en  virons. § 

*  Either  lie  came  from  Horonaim  (which  would  make  him  a  Moab- 
ite),  or  from  Beth-Horon,  near  Jerusalem, 
t  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xl.  viii.  2. 
X  Geshem,  in  the  English  Bible.  —  Trans. 
§  Nehemiah  xiii.  28. 


64  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

The  sections  were  about  forty.  All  persons  in 
easy  circumstances,  all  rich  corporations,  merchants, 
jewellers,  and  sellers  of  perfumes,  took  charge  of 
that  part  of  the  wall  which  was  nearest  to  their  ba- 
zaars or  houses.  The  priests,  from  the  high-priest 
Eliashib  downwards,  showed  much  zeal  on  the  occa- 
sion, and  built  long  portions  of  the  wall.  The  lé- 
vites and  the  netlmiim  were  not  less  industrious. 
Besides  this,  the  towns  and  districts  near  Jerusalem, 
under  the  conduct  of  their  elders,  contributed  their 
share  largely  to  the  work,  —  Jericho,' Gibeon,  Mizpah, 
Zanoah,  Beth-haccherem,  Beth-zur,  and  Keilah.  The 
men  who  lived  in  villages  around  Jerusalem  worked 
during  the  day,  and  returned  home  at  night.  The 
only  people  who  showed  slackness  were  the  men  of 
Tekoa,  at  least  their  leaders. 

The  walls  seem  to  have  been  rebuilt  entirely  on 
the  line  marked  out  by  the  ruins  of  the  former  ones. 
Workmen  dug  the  old  stones  from  piles  of  rubbish, 
and  from  under  the  soil  that  had  been  covering 
them,  little  by  little,  for  a  hundred  years.  And  this 
work  was  very  hard.*  The  city  of  that  day  nearly 
corresponded  with  the  present  one,  excepting  some 
parts  towards  the  south  and  a  broad  belt  towards 
the  north.  The  numerous  gates  and  towers  were 
rebuilt  with  exceeding  care.  The  somewhat  com- 
plicated erections  which  surrounded  the  Pool  of  Si- 
loam,  the  reservoirs  of  the  king's  gardens,  the  steps 
that  were  on  that  spot,  and  the  tombs  of  the  family 

*  Neliemiah  iii.  ;  iv.  2. 


NEHEMIAH  AND    THE   WALLS   OF  JERUSALEM.     65 

of  King  David,  were  restored  to  their  original  state. 
Nehemiah  does  not  seem  to  have  thought  of  rebuild- 
ing the  pahices  and  the  great  buildings  which  had 
been  erected  south  of  the  Temple.  A  fortress  near 
the  Temple*  seemed,  however,  necessary.  This  cit- 
adel, or  lira  {haris  in  the  time  of  the  Maccabees), 
was  a  large  construction,  occupying  the  spot  where 
Herod  afterwards  built  the  tower  of  Antonia  (which 
is  now  the  seraglio).! 

When  the  wall  in  its  different  sections  had  reached 
nearly  half  its  height,  the  animosity  of  the  surround- 
ing nations  broke  suddenly  into  violence  and  opposi- 
tion. Sanballat,  Tobiah,  the  Arabs,  the  Ammonites, 
and  the  Ashdodites  joined  together  to  go  up  to  Jeru- 
salem and  lay  it  waste.  The  Persian  empire  was  a 
feudal  one  ;  private  wars  could  be  carried  on  be- 
tween tow^ns,  nations,  and  powerful  chiefs.  The 
men  of  Jerusalem  were  informed,  by  other  Jews  liv- 
ing on  the  plains,  of  these  evil  designs  against  them. 
The  dwellers  in  neighbouring  villages  tried  to  per- 
suade their  friends  in  Jerusalem  to  come  home,  and 
so  escape  the  danger  that  threatened  the  capital. 
Nehemiah  took  open  precautionary  measures  which 
prevented  an  attack.  From  that  moment  every  man 
was  on  his  guard.  They  worked,  as  Nehemiah's 
memoir  metaphorically  tells  us,  with  one  hand,  while 

*  Nehemiah  ii.  8;  vii.  2. 

t  It  is  singular  that  no  mention  is  made  of  this  in  the  division  of 
labour  among  the  sections.  Perhaps  mon  IB'  does  not  imply  a  real 
bira. 


VOL.  IV.  —  5 


^  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

they  fought  with  the  other.*  They  had  their  swords 
girded  to  their  sides  while  they  built,  or  while  they 
carried  burthens.  Nehemiah  commanded  them,  hav- 
ing a  trumpeter  beside  him  to  give,  if  necessary,  in- 
stant signal  of  combat,  and  half  the  population  was 
kept  under  arms  from  morning  until  starlight.  At 
night  the  men  who  had  been  accustomed  to  return 
home  stayed  in  the  city,  and  helped  to  keep  watch. 
Nehemiah  and  his  men  never  put  off  their  clothes, 
and  kept  their  weapons  within  reach  of  their  hands. t 
The  financial  condition  of  the  city  during  this 
time  was  extremely  perplexing.  Before  the  arrival 
of  Nehemiah  the  population  of  Jerusalem  and  its 
outlying  villages  had  become  deeply  in  debt.  In 
order  to  pay  tribute  to  the  King  of  kings  the  chief 
part  of  them  had  mortgaged  their  houses  and  their 
lands,  nay,  even  had  had  to  sell  their  sons  and 
daughters,  and  to  hypothecate  all  they  possessed  so 
deeply  that  they  were  in  danger  of  in  a  short  time 
becoming  slaves.  The  rebuilding  of  the  wall  brought 
matters  to  a  crisis.  If  there  was  not  absolute  usury 
in  these  proceedings,  money  was  lent  on  conditions 
very  shocking  to  religious  feeling,  for  it  was  by  rea- 
son of  their  piety  that  these  people  were  going  to 
be  robbed.  By  previous  mortgage  the  crops  became 
the  property  of  the  money-lender,  and  the  poor  were 
destitute  of  food.     Such  behaviour  of  Jews  to  Jews 

*  Several  Psalms  may  be  referred  to  this  really  poetic  moment  in 
the  history  of  Israel,  —  Psalm  cxxvii.,  for  example,  which  is  supposed 
to  have  been  written  by  Nehemiah. 

f  Nehemiah  iv.  17.     Instead  of  D'DH  inbu',  read  n'3  innSt^. 


NEHEMIAH  AND   THE   WALLS  OF  JERUSALEM,    67 

was  most  abominable  !  Nehemiali,  his  relations  and 
his  officers,  had  lent  money  on  these  terms.  Nehe- 
miah  was  the  first  to  release  his  debtors,  and  his 
eloquence  on  behalf  of  the  poor  was  so  persuasive 
that  all  other  creditors  followed  his  example. 

When  the  work  was  almost  finished,  the  breaches 
repaired,  and  nothing  wanting  but  to  set  up  the  doors 
to  the  gates,  Sanballat,  Tobiah,  and  other  creditors 
of  the  Jews  renewed  their  opposition.  Four  sev- 
eral times  Sanballat  and  Geshem  invited  Nehemiah 
to  a  conference  in  one  of  the  villages  on  the  plain  of 
Ono,  near  Lydda.  Their  intentions  were  treacher- 
ous. Nehemiah  made  a  reply  that  ought  to  be  in 
the  heart  of  every  one  who  has  a  duty  to  fulfil  : 
"  I  am  doing  a  great  work,  and  I  cannot  come 
down."  ^  Sanballat  returned  to  the  charg:e.  He 
sent  an  open  letter  to  Nehemiah,  which  ran  thus  : 
"  It  is  reported  among  the  nations,  and  Geshem 
saith  it,  that  thou  and  the  Jews  think  to  rebel  ; 
for  which  cause  thou  buildest  the  wall.  And  thou 
wouldest  be  their  king,  according  to  these  words. 
And  thou  hast  also  appointed  prophets  to  preach 
of  thee  at  Jerusalem,  saying,  There  is  a  King  in 
Judah.  And  now  shall  it  be  reported  to  the  king 
according  to  these  words.  Come  now,  therefore,  and 
let  us  take  counsel  together."  Sanballat's  design 
was,  by  alarming  Nehemiah,  to  hinder  the  com- 
pletion of  the  work  and  the  placing  of  the  doors 
of  the  gates. 

*  Magnum  opus  facio,  et  non  possum  descendere. 


68  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Nehemiah  was  careful  not  to  fall  into  the  snare. 
There  were  still  in  trutli  nehiim  in  Jerusalem,  but  all 
were  not  favourable  to  Nehemiah.  One  of  them, 
Shemaiah,  son  of  Delaiah,  ^  allowed  himself  to  be 
won  over  by  Sanballat,  and  strove  to  ruin  Nehemiah 
by  a  plot,  w^ith  most  complicated  details  ;  but  the 
wise  pekah,  who  well  knew  his  countrymen,  skilfully 
frustrated  his  design. 

It  is  singular  that  Nehemiah  should  have  encoun- 
tered, even  among  the  class  considered  eminently 
pious  men,  an  active  opposition.  A  little  poem 
which  possibly  belongs  to  this  period  seems  to 
contain  allusions  unfavourable  to  him.  His  activity 
and  human  skill  seemed  to  denote  self-confidence  and 
a  proud  heart,  a  sin  unpardonable  in  any  Jew. 

Except  lahveh  build  the  house,  f 
They  labour  in  vain  that  build  it; 
Except  lahveh  keep  the  city, 
The  watcliman  waketh  but  in  vain. 

It  is  vain  for  yon  that  y^  rise  up  early 

And  so  late  take  rest, 

And  eat  the  bread  of  toil  ; 

For  so  he  giveth  unto  his  beloved  sleep.  $ 

Lo!  children  are  an  heritage  of  lahveh, 
And  the  fruit  of  the  womb  is  his  reward. 

*  Nehemiah  vi,  10  and  what  follows.  In  the  14th  verse  read 
D:3  t?^3jn  n';?DK^S  DJI  in^b.  Noadiah  should  be  stricken  from  tlie 
list  of  the  Prophets. 

t  Psalm  cxxvii.  "We  have  already  observed  that  the  r)ible  often  gives 
side  by  side  arguments  for  and  against  matters  of  which  it  treats.  Tiie 
same  thing  may  be  observed  in  the  great  collection  of  fragments  put  forth 
by  the  Greeks  under  the  names  of  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Hippocrates. 

X  Or  "  sleeping."     Head  D'Jiy  ITtS,  by  the  rule  D'  =  N. 


NEHEMIAH  AND    THE   WALLS   OF  JERUSALEM. 


69 


As  arrows  in  the  hand  of  a  mighty  man, 
So  are  the  children  of  youth.* 

Happy  is  the  man  who  hath  his  quiver  full  of  them! 
They  shall    not    be   ashamed  when   they   speak    with   their 
enemies  in  the  gate.f 

The  wall  was  at  last  finished  on  the  25th  day  of 
the  month  Elul  (the  autumn  equinox),  after  a  labour 
which,  according  to  the  Hebrew  text  we  have,  lasted 
fifty-two  days,  but  according  to  Josephus  two  years 
and  four  months.  It  was,  as  it  were,  the  personal 
work  of  Nehemiah.  In  the  city  itself  there  was  a 
party  that  hindered  and  thwarted  him  in  every  way, 
and  carried  on  a  regular  correspondence  with  Tobiah. 
This  personage,  as  we  have  seen,  was  connected  by 
marriage  with  some  of  the  leading  men  [of  Jeru- 
salem], who  consequently  were  his  sworn  friends  and 
allies.  They  kept  him  informed  of  all  the  words  of 
Nehemiah.  Tobiah,  on  his  part,  wrote  them  letters 
intended  to  be  shown  to  Nehemiah  with  a  view  of 
intimidating  him.| 

The  months  that  followed  the  completion  of  the 
wall  were  full  of  cares  and  anxieties  for  Nehemiah. 
Tobiah  watched  him,  and  set  spies  on  all  his  doings. 
The  Shecaniahs  and  Meshullams  wounded  deeply 
the  sensitive  heart  of  Nehemiah  by  making  in  his 
presence  pompous  eulogies  of  Tobiah.  §     As  soon  as 

*  If  this  Psalm  refers  to  Nehemiah,  and  if,  as  some  suppose,  because 
he  had  been  a  member  of  the  household  of  the  Persian  king  he  was  a 
eunuch,  these  latter  verses  may  contain  a  contemptuous  allusion. 

t  Read  3n\ 

X  Nehemiah  vi.  17-19. 

§  1'ri:3l£3,  a  play  on  the  word. 


70  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL, 

the  doors  of  the  gates  were  hung,  and  gate-keepers 
put  in  office,*  Nehemiah  appointed  his  own  brother 
Hanani  commandant  of  Jerusalem,  and  put  the  6/ra, 
or  citadel,  in  charge  of  a  certain  Hananiah,  a  man 
much  trusted  by  the  ultra-religious  party.  The  gate- 
keepers were  instructed  to  take  the  most  severe 
precautions.  They  were  to  open  late  in  the  morning, 
and  all  night  those  who  inhabited  each  section  were 
to  set  a  watch  on  that  part  of  the  wall  opposite  to 
their  houses. 

The  inauguration  of  the  walls t  took  place  with 
great  ceremony.  Lévites  were  gathered  together 
from  all  directions,  to  make  a  great  hanukka  with 
psalms  of  thanksgiving  and  praise,  v*'ith  an  accom- 
paniment of  cymbals,  nebels  (psalteries),  and  kinnors 
(harps).  The  singers  living  in  the  villages  they 
had  built  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Jerusalem  flocked 
into  the  city.  They  proceeded  first  to  perform  great 
purifications  on  their  own  persons  ;  then  they  puri- 
fied, by  sprinkling,  the  people,  the  gates,  and  the  wall. 
Nehemiah  caused  the  Princes  of  Judah  to  stand  upon 
it,  besides  two  great  choral  bands,  which  starting, 
preceded  by  music,  from  the  corner-gate  (now  Jaffa 
Gate),  marched  in  opposite  directions,  —  one  south, 
the  other  east,  —  and  were  to  come  together  at  the 
Temple.  The  two  processions  consisted  first  of  the 
singers,  then  of  the  Princes  of  Judah,  and  the  priests 

*  Nehemiah  vii.  1.     Leave  out  the  words  D'lSni  D'T^ïî^rsni  added  by 
the  compiler  of  Chronicles. 

t  Nehemiah  xii.  27-43.     A  fragment  of  tlie  Memoirs. 


NEHEMIAH  AND    THE    WALLS   OF  JERUSALEM,     71 

with  their  trumpets,*  Nehemiah  himself  closing  the 
line  of  march  in  one  of  them.f  One  of  these  proces- 
sions marched  on  the  top  of  the  wall  southward  till 
it  reached  the  Pool  of  Siloam,  where  it  left  the  wall, 
and  mounted  the  steps  which  led  along  Ophel  to 
the  City  of  David,  —  that  is  to  say,  to  Zion.  The 
second  procession,  of  which  Nehemiah  formed  part, 
followed  the  line  of  the  ramparts  on  the  north 
through  all  its  curves,  until  it  reached  the  gate  near- 
est to  the  Temple.  There  the  two  choirs  met,  and 
doubtless  a  solemn  toda  was  sung  by  all  of  them. 
They  imagined  that  the  shade  of  David  presided  over 
these  ceremonies  \  the  songs  and  the  musical  instru- 
ments they  used  they  believed  had  come  down  from 
him.  The  festival  ended  by  sacrifices  and  feasting 
and  songs  of  joy. 

Never  had  the  foundation  of  a  city  on  the  pure 
basis  of  relio-ion  without  the  aid  of  warriors  been  so 
openly  avowed.  Ancient  cities  seldom  survived  the 
overthrow  of  their  country.  If  the  Acropolis  at 
Athens  had  been  taken  by  the  Persians,  we  should 
never  have  seen  an  assemblage  of  priests  return- 
ing: there  and  restorino;  the  stated  Panathenaic 
festivals,  while  iVthens  was  still  enslaved.  Now, 
Nehemiah    does    not    seem    to   have    once    dreamed 

*  Compare  Psalm  Ixviii.  But  this  Psalm  is  ancient;  the  processional 
hymn  imitated  the  Psalm. 

t  According  to  our  present  text  Ezra  marched  at  the  head  of  the 
first  procession;  but  this  must  be  an  insertion  on  the  part  of  the 
compiler  of  the  Chronicles,  who  makes  Nehemiah  figure  in  the  demon- 
stration of  Ezra,  and  Ezra  in  that  of  Nehemiah. 


72  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL. 

that  anything  of  importance  was  lacking  to  his  city, 
or  that  this  city  of  priests  and  musicians  wore  the 
yoke  of  servitude.  The  priests  who  sounded  their 
trumpets  upon  walls  built  by  permission  of  a  despot 
did  not  consider  themselves  slaves.  So  true  is  it 
that  a  church  was  founded  that  day  in  Jerusalem, 
and  not  a  city.  A  crowd  of  people  amused  with 
Jetes^  nobles  flattered  by  honourable  places  being 
accorded  to  them  in  a  procession,  are  not  the 
elements  that  form  a  nation  :  a  warlike  aristocracy 
is  also  needed.  The  Jew  will  never  be  a  citizen  ;  he 
will  simply  live  in  the  cities  of  others.  But  let  us 
say  at  once  that  there  is  something  else  in  this 
world  besides  even  one's  own  countrv,  Socrates  at 
the  moment  of  which  we  write  was  laying  the  foun- 
dation of  philosophy,  while  Anytus  and  Melitus 
were  about  to  contend  that  he  was  sapping  the 
basis  of  the  State.  Liberty  is  distinctly  a  creation 
of  modern  times.  It  is  the  outcome  of  an  idea 
which  antiquity  had  not  :  that  the  State  protects 
impartially  the  most  opposite  elements  of  men's 
activity,  while  remaining  neutral  in  matters  of  con- 
science, sentiment,  and  taste. 


CHAPTER  VIL 

THE   ADMINISTRATION    OF    NEHEMIAH. 

Not  uncommonly  devout  men  —  even  bigots  — 
make  excellent  administrators  ;  for  the  spirit  of 
strict  exactness  which  is  dan^^erous  in  relio-ion  is  a 
useful  thing  in  government.  Nehemiah  appears  to 
have  made  an  admirable  prefect  in  Judea,  according 
to  the  ideas  v/liich,  since  the  days  of  Ezekiel  and 
the  editors  of  the  laws  in  Leviticus,  represented 
constitutional  rights  in  the  Jewish  nation.  The 
singular  growth  of  Jerusalem  gave  rise  to  many 
especial  difficulties.  The  new  city  was  enclosed  in 
precisely  the  same  space  as  the  former  one  ;  but  as 
the  population  was  much  smaller,  there  were  many 
vacant  spaces  within  the  walls.  Very  few  new 
houses  had  been  built.  The  methods  by  which 
Judea  was  now  governed,  exclusively  by  men  of 
ultra-religious  views,  made  life  in  Jerusalem  un- 
comfortable. The  tribute  due  to  Persia  was  heavy. 
Forced  labour  and  requisitions  were  frequently  called 
for.*  A  crowd  of  people  who  lived  in  Jerusalem 
were  absolutely  without  the  means  of  meeting  the 
demand. 

*  Nehemiah  v.  4  ;  ix.  36,  37. 


74  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Nehemiah,  to  remedy  this  evil,  made  some  singu- 
lar regulations.*  Jerusalem  was  to  be  looked  upon 
as  an  aristocratic  city  in  which  it  was  a  privilege  to 
dwell.  The  heads  of  the  people  —  laymen,  priests, 
or  lévites  —  alone  had  a  right  to  live  there  ;  as  for 
the  rest  of  the  population,  they  must  draw  lots. 
Every  tenth  Jew  was  admitted  to  become  an  in- 
habitant of  the  Holy  City;  the  other  nine  were  to 
live  in  the  suburbs.  Those  who  were  chosen  were 
congratulated  on  their  good  fortune.  The  poems 
composed  at  this  time  are  full  of  ardent  devotion 
to  Jerusalem.  To  dwell  there  was  happiness  ;  the 
favour  of  lahveh  was  for  those  who  abode  therein. 
And  then  it  was  so  beautiful  a  place  !  It  was 
builded  as  a  city  that  is  "compact  together"  and 
can  defend  itself. t 

I  was  glad  when  they  said  unto  me, 
Let  us  go  into  the  house  of  lahveh. 

Our  feet  are  standing 

Within  thy  gates,  O  Jerusalem! 

Jerusalem,  thou  art  builded 

As  a  city  that  is  compact  together,  \ 

Whither  the  tribes  go  up. 
Even  the  tribes  of  lahveh, 

For  a  testimony  unto  Israel, 

To  give  thanks  unto  the  name  of  lahveh. 

*  Nehemiah  xi.,  which  should  come  immediately  after  chap.  vii. 

t  Psalm  cxxii.  Many  things  would  lead  us  to  think  that  this 
Psalm  was  written  in  the  reign  of  Josiah  ;  but  its  style  is  later  than 
the  Captivity,  and  the  whole  Psalm  exactly  corresponds  to  the 
situation.     Nehemiah  xi.   1,  2.  . 

X  Ibn-Batoutah  says  the  same  thing  of  Mecca  (vol.  i.  p.  303). 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  NE  HEM  I  AH.  75 

For  there  are  set  thrones  for  judgment, 
The  thrones  of  the  house  of  David.* 

Pray  for  the  peace  of  Jerusalem  :  saying, 
''They  shall  prosper  that  love  thee. 

Peace  be  within  thy  walls, 

And  prosperity  within  thy  palaces.'^ 

For  my  brethren  and  companions'  sakes 
I  will  now  say,  Peace  be  within  thee. 

For  the  sake  of  the  house  of  lahveh  our  God 
I  will  seek  to  do  thee  good. 

Nehemiah  then  proceeded  to  take  a  census,  the 
authentic  text  of  which  has  come  down  to  us.t  The 
tribes  of  Judah  and  Benjamin  were  still  mentioned 
separately,  although  they  had  become  mixed  as  to 
residence.  The  priests  were  the  aristocracy  of  the 
city.  The  lévites,  their  subordinates  in  the  hie- 
rarchy, the  gate-keepers,  and  all  employed  in  the 
Temple  service  had  duties  which  must  have  given 
them  wealth.  We  do  not  how^ever  know  what  were 
their  duties  outside  of  the  Temple. |  The  singers  of 
the  choir  of  Asaph  and  of  Ethan,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  sing  psalms  of  praise  beginning  by  Hoclou,  were 
well  off  ;  §   they  had  their  daily  support  assured  to 

*  Possibly  retrospective. 

t  This  text  is  copied  in  1  Chronicles  ix.  The  variations  are  so 
great,  and  the  numbers  are  subject  to  so  many  reserves,  that  it  is  very 
difficult  to  make  much  out  of  them.  The  fragment,  xii.  l-'26,  is 
another  list  which  the  editor  of  the  Chronicles  did  not  wish  to  lose. 
Verses  10,  11  are  an  addition  to  the  list  of  high-priests  given  us  in 
Chronicles. 

§  Nehemiah  xi.  17:  xii.  9,  &c.  Note  n'p3p3,  the  baqbouq  of 
Jahve,  —  the  Arab  bakbouk. 


-jd  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

them  by  a  royal  decree.*  Other  Israelites,  priests 
and  lévites,  lived  in  the  hamlets  of  Jiidea.  The 
nethinim  lived  at  Ophel.  Mezezabel  was  the  king's 
commissioner  to  look  after  things  in  general.  One 
cannot  say  exactly  what  was  the  nature  of  his 
employment. 

The  greater  part  of  the  men  of  Judah  and  of  Ben- 
jamin continued  to  live  in  the  country,  each  one  on 
his  own  land.  Chief  among  those  places  which  the 
Jews  had  recovered,  were  Kirjath-arba,  or  Hebron, 
and  its  dependencies  ;  Dibon  (not  the  city  of  the 
Moabites)  and  its  villages;  Jekabzeel  and  its  vil- 
lages ;  Jeshua,  Moladah,  Beth-pelet,  Hazar-shual, 
Beer-sheba  and  its  dependencies  ;  Ziklag,  Meconah, 
En-rimmon,  Zorah,  Jarmuth,  Zanoah,  Adullam,  La- 
chish,  Azekah,  and  their  dependencies.  Jews  were 
thus  resettled  in  ancient  Judea  ''  from  Beer-sheba 
even  unto  the  Valley  of  Hinnom."  The  Benjamite 
villages  also,  Geba,  Michmash,  Aija,  Bethel  and  its 
dependencies,  Anathoth,  Nob,  Ananiah,  Hazor,  Rama, 
Gittaim,  Hadid,  Zeboim,  Neballat,  Lod,  Ono,  and 
Gehaharashim  recovered  a  population  more  numer- 
ous than  they  had  before  the  exile.  In  a  hundred 
years  the  little  nation  had  thus  almost  reconquered 
its  former  frontiers.  The  power  of  birth  is  strong.! 
The  loss  of  population  created  by  war  and  transpor- 
tation to  another  land  was  rapidly  remedied. 

*  Nehemiah  xi.  23.  Cf.  Ezra  vi.  8  and  what  follows;  vii.  20  and 
what  follows. 

f  Psalm  cxxvii.  3-5. 


THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF  NEHEMIAH.  77 

Nehemiah,  after  being  twelve  years  ruler  in  Je- 
rusalem, all  that  time  under  Artaxerxes,  made  a 
journey  in  the  year  433  b.  c.  to  the  seat  of  the  Per- 
sian govemment."*^  As  might  have  been  expected, 
the  liberal  and  tolerant  party  took  advantage  of  his 
absence  to  relapse  in  many  ways.  Tobiah,  his  per- 
sonal enemy,  having  come  up  to  Jerusalem,  was  well 
received  there  by  the  best  society.  The  high-priest 
Eliashib,  his  near  connection,  who  had  superintend- 
ence over  the  liskoth  of  the  Temple,  set  apart  for  his 
lodging  a  large  liska,  used  in  general  to  store  the 
offerings,  the  incense,  the  furniture  and  utensils 
needed  in  the  Temple  service,  the  tithes  of  money, 
wine,  and  oil,  —  all  that  was  due,  in  short,  to  the  lé- 
vites, singers,  and  porters,  and  all  that  was  set  apart 
from  the  offerings  for  the  priests.  Many  persons,  it 
would  seem,  hoped  that  now  Nehemiah  had  departed 
Tobiah  might  be  appointed  governor  of  Jerusalem, 
and  they  welcomed  the  prospect.  These  sentiments 
were  to  be  found  even  among  the  priests,  wdio  were 
far  from  being,  all  of  them,  persons  of  exalted  piety. 

Nehemiah's  stay  at  the  Persian  court  appears  not 
to  have  been  long.  He  probably  felt  that  his  au- 
thority might  be  undermined  if  he  were  absent.  On 
his  return  to  Jerusalem  he  was  extremely  dissatisfied. 
The  mere  fact  of  Tobiah  being  lodged  in  the  courts 
of  the  Temple  shocked  him  exceedingly.  He  caused 
all  Tobiah's  furniture  and  effects  to  be  flung  out  of 
the  liska,  had  all  the  rooms  he  had  occudied  purified, 

*  Nehemiah  xiii.  6. 


7S  HISTORY   OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

and  had  the  Temple  offerings  and  the  incense,  which 
had  been  removed  for  his  accommodation,  put  back 
into  their  place. 

Nehemiah  soon  found  that  during  his  journey  other 
abuses  had  crept  into  his  jurisdiction.  The  dues  of 
the  lévites  had  not  been  regularly  paid  ;  the  lévites 
and  singers  who  should  have  officiated  in  the  Temple, 
finding  that  they  had  not  means  of  subsistence  in 
Jerusalem,  had  gone  back  to  their  own  lands  that 
they  might  cultivate  them.  Nehemiah  addressed 
sharp  reproaches  to  the  magistrates  who  should  have 
looked  to  this  ;  then  he  recalled  the  lévites,  and  rein- 
stalled them  in  their  posts.  He  also  organised  a 
board,  composed  of  a  priest,  a  scribe,  a  lévite,  and  a 
layman,  who  were  all  considered  faithful  men,  to 
keep  a  watch  over  the  stores.  The  members  of  the 
board  were  charged  to  make  proper  distributions  to 
their  brethren,  and  for  a  while  abuses  disappeared. 

The  observance  of  the  Sabbath  was  becoming  more 
and  more  the  central  principle  of  Judaism.  Nehe- 
miah, in  one  of  his  walks,  saw  men  pressing  out 
their  grapes,  while  others  brought  into  Jerusalem  on 
asses  wheat,  wine,  grapes,  figs,  and  all  sorts  of  other 
provisions  on  the  Sabbath  day.  He  sharply  remon- 
strated. There  were  men  of  Tyre  established  in  the 
city,  who  on  the  Sabbath  sold  fish  and  other  arti- 
cles ;  rich  and  influential  people  did  not  hesitate  to 
buy  of  them.  Nehemiah  reproached  them  vehe- 
mently, and  to  put  an  end  to  the  abuse  employed  a 
very  decisive  measure.     He  ordered  that  the  market- 


THE   ADMINISTRATION  OF  NE  HE  MIA  H.  79 

place  should  be  closed  at  nightfall  of  the  day  before 
the  Sabbath,  and  kept  closed  all  the  next  day. 
During  this  time  agents  of  the  governor,  posted 
at  the  gates  of  Jerusalem,  prevented  any  loaded 
beast  from  entering  the  city.  Men  who  had  mer- 
chandise to  sell  had  to  pass  the  night  outside  the 
walls.  When  that  had  happened  once  or  twice,  the 
order  was  followed  up  by  reprimands,  then  by 
threats,  and  after  that  the  Sabbath  was  rigidly 
observed.  The  lévites,  ceremonially  purified,  were 
commissioned  to  watch  over  the  observance  of  the 
holy  rest. 

Amongst  Nehemiah's  reforms  nothing  is  said  of 
circumcision,  because  probably  of  this  there  was  no 
need.  Every  Jew  in  the  fifth  century  B.  c.  was  cir- 
cumcised as  a  thing  of  course  ;  and  as  the  practice 
of  circumcision  was  more  and  more  discontinued 
through  the  East  it  became  a  simple  sign,  a  mark 
in  the  flesh,  of  the  covenant  made  with  lahveh. 

Purity  of  race  was  the  chief  aim  of  these  ancient 
zealots.  Nehemiah  objected  above  all  to  mixed 
marriages.  These  mixed  marriages,  forbidden  in 
Deuteronomy,*  had  become  very  common  in  Jndea. 
It  was  one  of  the  consequences  of  the  immigration. 
When  people  emigrate,  men  are  always  more  numer- 
ous than  women.  The  lists  of  those  who  returned 
to  Palestine  with  Zerubbabel  and  Ezra  contain  only 
the  names   of  men.     The  returned  Jews  therefore, 

*  Deuteronomy  vii  3,  &c.  ;  xi.  8  ;  xxiii.  7  ;  Nehemiah  i.  7,  &c.   Cf. 
Ezra  ix.  11,  &c. 


8o  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

the  rich  especially,  were  thus  forced  to  make  mar- 
riages with  the  neighbouring  people,  —  Moabites, 
Edomites,  and  Ammonites. 

It  would  appear  that  those  exiles  who  had  been 
transported  to  Babylonia  had  been  more  strict  on 
this  point  than  those  who  stayed  behind.  Horror 
of  the  heathen  was  intense  among  the  faithful  in 
the  far  East  ;  all  nations  except  their  own  —  the 
Children  of  Israel  —  were  abominable  in  their  sight.* 
One  day  Nehemiah  met  some  Jews  who  had  married 
women  of  Ashdod,  Ammon,  and  Moab,  half  of  whose 
children  spoke  the  speech  of  Ashdod  or  some  other 
dialect,  and  did  not  know  how  to  speak  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Jews.t  Nehemiah  reviled  them  vigor- 
ously, cursed  them,  smote  some  of  them,  and 
plucked  out  their  hair,  adjuring  them  in  the  name 
of  God  to  make  no  alliances  in  the  families  of  those 
who  were  not  Jews.^  The  example  of  Solomon,  led 
into  sin  by  the  influence  of  strange  women,  was  held 
up  to  them  as  a  salutary  warning  against  such 
unions. 

One  of  the  sons  of  the  high-priest  Eliashib,  named 
Joiadah,  who  afterwards  succeeded  his  father,  raised 
the  scandal  to  its  height;  he  married  his  son  Man- 
asseh    to   a   daughter   of   Sanballat   the    Horonite,§ 

*  Ezra  ix.  14  ;  see  on  the  other  hand  Zechariah  viii.  14,  &c. 

X  Nehemiah  xiii.  23,  &c.     The  same  thing  is  attributed  to  Ezra. 

§  Nehemiah  xiii.,  28,  29  ;  Joseph  us.  Antiquities,  xi.  vii.,  viii. 
Josephus  has  confounded  ^HT  and  ;^1T,  and  has  consequently  erred  in 
the  dates.     See  p.  134,  notes. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION   OF  NEFIEMIAH.  8i 

called  Nicaso.  Nehemiah  drove  him  from  tlie  city. 
Manasseli  seems  subsequently  to  have  played  a  con- 
siderable part  in  the  Samaritan  schism.  The  feud  be- 
tween Nehemiah  and  Eliashib  was  increased  by  these 
things  day  by  day.  "  Remember  them,  0  God,"  he 
cried,  "  because  they  have  defiled  the  priesthood  and 
the  covenant  of  the  priesthood  and  of  the  lévites."  * 
The  zealous  reformer  and  the  chief  priests  became 
more  and  more  sharply  opposed  to  each  other,  and 
the  mutual  antipathy  which  separated  Nehemiah 
from  Eliashib  grew  every  day  more  bitter.  It 
opened  the  gulf  which  five  hundred  years  later  lay 
between  Jesus  and  Caiaphas.  Caiaphas  compassed 
the  death  of  Jesus  ;  but  Jesus  rose  again. 

The  priesthood,  busied  exclusively  with  the  sacri- 
fices, gave  little  time  to  the  reading  of  the  Torah. 
Reading  the  Torah  on  the  contrary  was  the  great 
lever  by  which  Nehemiah  hoped  to  raise  his  people. 
Men  left  the  gatherings  [where  the  Torah  had  been 
read  to  them]  with  feelings  of  pride  and  frenzied 
national  jealousy.!  One  day  while  reading  the  Law 
they  heard  how  Moabites  and  Ammonites  were  to  be 
excluded  forever  from  the  household  of  God,  because 
they  had  refused  bread  and  water  to  the  Israelites, 
and  had  hired  Balaam  to  curse  them.:|:  When  they 
heard  this  they  put  out  from  among  themselves  such 
persons  with  zeal  still  more  severe.     How  far  was 

*  Nehemiah  xiii.  21. 

t  Nehemiah  xiii.   1,  2,  3,  —  an  addition  by  the  writer  of  Chronicles 
to  prepare  the  way  for  the  episode  that  follows. 
X  Deuteronomy  xxiii.  3  and  what  follows. 

VOL.  IV.  —  6 


82  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

all  this  from  the  spirit  of  the  great  Anonymous 
Prophet  of  the  Captivity  !  The  odium  generis  hu- 
mani  had  its  root  in  those  far-off  days.  But  the 
faults  of  Israel  have  always  been  the  faults  of  a 
noble  minority,  which  has  in  the  eyes  of  history 
absorbed  the  rest  of  the  race,  and  been  accepted  as 
its  representative. 

Nehemiah  appears  to  have  died  at  a  good  old  age, 
and  to  have  seen  the  first  years  of  the  reign  of 
Darius  Nothus.*  He  was  a  conscientious  fanatic, 
perfecting  his  plans  with  care  and  a  strong  will.  In 
the  latter  part  of  his  life  he  wrote  his  autobiog- 
raphy ;  and  this  curious  document,  one  of  the  most 
precious  relics  of  Hebrew  literature,  has  come  down 
to  us  wnth  only  slight  alterations,  proceeding  prob- 
ably from  the  writer  of  Chronicles.!  Few  writings 
bear  more  strongly  the  impress  of  personality  than 
these  memoirs,  though  we  may  suspect  fable  in  the 
anecdotes  of  childhood. |  The  pious  ejaculatory 
prayers,  full  of  piety  and  self-complacency,  and  of 
rancour  against  Sanballat  and  Tobiah,  give  a  most 
true  idea  of  the  piety  of  these  times.  Nehemiah 
looks  only  to  lahveh  for  his  reward  ;  but  3'et  the 
opinion  of  men  is  by  no  means  indifferent  to  him. 
He  has  self-complacency,  nay,  even  vanity.  He 
wants  every  one  to  know  what  he  has  done,  the 
gratitude  his  people  owe  him,  and  the  disinterested- 

*  Josephiis,  Antiquities,  xi.  v.  8;   Chron.  Alex.,  p.  381;  01.  Ixxxi. 
f  See  previous  pa^e  50,  note. 

X  Nehemiah  ii.    Compare  the  story  of  the  youths  of  Darius's  guard, 
1  Esdraa  iii.,  iv.     Esther  and  Daniel  begin  in  a  similar  way. 


THE   ADMINISTRATION  OF  NEHEMIAH.  83 

ness  with  which  he  has  conducted  all  his  enterprises. 
He  wishes  to  pass  for  a  model  pekali,  governing  his 
co-religionists. *"  Prefects  in  those  days  were  paid 
(that  is  to  say,  supported)  by  those  they  ruled  over. 
Nehemiah  during  the  twelve  years  of  his  adminis- 
tration refused  to  receive  such  maintenance.  He  and 
his  family  cost  his  people  nothing.     He  says  :  — 

From  the  time  that  I  was  appointed  to  be  governor  in 
the  land  of  Judea,  from  the  twentieth  even  to  the  two  and 
thirtieth  year  of  Artaxerxes  the  king,  I  and  my  brethren 
have  not  eaten  the  bread  of  the  governor.  But  the  former 
governors  were  chargeable  unto  the  people,  and  took  from 
them  bread  and  wine,  yea,  besides  forty  shekels  of  silver  ; 
even  their  servants  bore  rule  over  the  people.  But  so  did 
not  I,  because  of  the  fear  of  God.  Yea,  also,  continued  I  in 
the  work  of  this  wall,  neither  bought  we  any  land,  and  all  my 
servants  were  gathered  thither  unto  the  work.  Moreover, 
there  were  at  my  table  of  the  Jews  and  the  rulers  an  hun- 
dred and  fifty  men,  besides  those  that  came  unto  us  from 
among  the  heathen  that  dwelt  round  about  us.  Now,  that 
that  was  prepared  for  one  day  was  one  ox  and  six  choice 
sheep,  also  fowls  were  prepared  for  me,  and  once  in  ten 
days  store  of  all  sorts  of  wine  ;  yet  for  all  this  I  demanded 
not  the  bread  of  the  governor,  because  the  bondage  was 
heavy  upon  this  people.  Remember  unto  me,  0  God,  for 
good  all  that  I  have  done  for  this  people. 

This  is  very  fine,  no  doubt  ;  but  how  much  grander 
does  the  bleeding  heart  of  Jeremiah  appear  to  us 
with  its  sombre  and  despairing  self-devotion  ! 

*  Nehemiah  v.  14-19. 


CHAPTER   YIII. 

LEGENDARY    STORY    OF    EZRA. 

Those  who  were  personally  cognisant  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  reforms  were  effected  in  the  fifth 
century  b.  c.  no  doubt  attributed  all  the  success  of 
this  great  movement  to  Nehemiah.*^  That  reform, 
effected  by  a  governor  appointed  by  the  King  of  Per- 
sia, must  certainly  have  created  a  deep  impression 
on  the  Jewish  mind.  The  reading  of  the  Memoirs  of 
Nehemiah,  a  scroll  circulated  shortly  before  or  after 
his  death,  must  have  increased  the  effect,  and  seems 
to  have  provoked  among  the  priests,  the  lévites,  and 
the  pharisaic  class  in  general  a  somewhat  violent 
reaction.  It  seemed  to  these  personages  dangerous 
that  a  mere  lay  functionary  should  have  played  so 
prominent  a  part.  They  would  have  preferred  that 
a  scribe,  a  man  of  priestly  birth,  should  at  least  have 
contributed  an  equal  share  to  the  great  restoration, 
and  should  have  given  the  last  touch  to  the  Torah. 

Hence  came  the  creation  of  the  part  of  Ezra,  a 
part  parallel  to  that  of  Nehemiah.  The  Memoirs  of 
Nehemiah  served  as  a   pattern  for   those  of   Ezra. 

*  Ecclesiasticus  xlix.  13,  and  the  letter  at  the  beginning  of  2  Mac- 
cabees i.  10,  &c. 


LEGENDARY  STORY  OF  EZRA.  85 

Memoirs  for  the  scribe  were  composed  on  the  same 
lines  as  those  of  the  governor.*  Then  the  author 
of  Chronicles  soldered  both  together,  in  such  a  way 
as  to  convey  an  impression  that  both  scribe  and 
governor  acted  in  concert,  both  being  concerned  in 
the  same  reforms  and  presiding  over  the  same 
ceremonies.! 

A  branch  of  the  family  of  Seraiah,  which  did  not 
go  back  to  Jerusalem  like  Joshua  the  son  of  Josedeck, 
is  thought  to  have  kept  the  old  family  tradition. 
Sometime  in  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes  Longimanus, 
a  great-grandson,  or  rather  the  son  of  a  great-grand- 
son, of  Seraiah,  named  Ezra,  is  supposed  to  have 
formed  a  resolution  to  go  up  to  Jerusalem,  and  settle 
there,  taking  with  him  a  considerable  treasure  con- 
tributed by  the  Jews  still  living  in  Babylonia.  Is 
this  pure  fiction,  or  is  it  some  reminiscence  of  how  a 
real  personage,  a  member  of  the  house  of  Seraiah, 
played  an  important  part  in  Jerusalem  in  the  fifth 
century  ?     It  is  hard  to  say.     All  we  know  is  that 

*  Chapters  vii.-x.  of  what  we  know  as  the  Book  of  Ezra  and  viii.- 
X.  of  Xehemiah,  have  been  made  out  of  the  so-called  ]\Ienioirs  of  Ezra, 
in  which  Ezra  is  supposed  to  speak  in  the  first  person.  Such  com- 
positions in  autobiographical  form  were  the  taste  of  that  period. 
Compare  Nehemiah  and  Tobit.  We  shall  then  see  on  what  a  weak 
foundation  the  history  of  Ezra  as  an  historical  personage  rests.  The 
son  of  Sirach  (author  of  Ecclesiasticus),  xlix.  11-13,  mentions  only 
Zerubbabel,  Joshua  the  son  of  Josedeck,  and  Nehemiah.  See 
2  Maccabees  i. 

t  Everything  leads  us  to  think  that  Ezra,  if  really  an  historical 
personage,  died  before  the  arrival  of  Nehemiah,  notwithstanding 
Nehemiah  viii.  9  and  xii.  36.  Compare  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xi.  v.  5. 
The  circumstances  of  the  assembly  held  by  Ezra,  whether  real  or 
imaginary,  presume  Nehemiah's  wall  not  to  have  been  built. 


86  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL. 

the  story  of  Ezra  has  several  contradictory  facts  at  its 
foundation.  According  to  some  he  came  to  strengthen 
the  Hierosolyraite  feeling  in  the  colony,  a  hundred 
years  after  its  resurrection.  According  to  others 
the  book  that  records  the  return  of  Ezra  is  a  vocto^^ 
a  poem  of  return  like  many  others.  These  voaroi 
had  become  a  kind  of  literature  which  took  for  its 
theme  some  touching  episode.  Ezra  is  made  to  or- 
ganise the  return,  as  though  Sheshbazzar  and  Zerub- 
babel  had  never  existed.  The  Temple,  the  town, 
the  Law,  the  walls,  —  all  date  from  him.  He  shines 
under  Artaxerxes  as  the  great  reorganiser  of  the 
Jewish  nation. 

In  this  narrative  the  author  dwells  with  great 
complacency  on  grand  pictures  of  scenes  in  religious 
story,  such  as  were  in  conformity  with  the  manners 
of  the  time.  The  caravan  of  Ezra,  we  are  given 
to  understand,  left  Babylonia  in  the  year  458  b.  c* 
It  was  composed  of  about  fifteen  hundred  men.t 
There  were  among  them  many  priests  of  the  house 
of  Aaron,  and  at  least  one  member  of  the  family  of 
David,  —  Hattush,  grandson  of  Shechaniah.i     Ezra 

*  The  autobiographical  chapters  are  more  vague.  See  viii.  1. 
It  -was  desirable  to  bring  the  dates  of  Zerubbabel  and  Ezra  nearer 
together.  Josephus  felt  this.  The  desire  to  make  Ezra  the  contem- 
porary and  equal  of  Xehemiah  may  have  led  to  lowering  the  dates  of 
Ezra  thirty  or  forty  years. 

t  Even  if  we  look  upon  the  Memoirs  of  Ezra  as  fictitious,  we  may 
permit  ourselves  to  perceive  in  them  many  true  facts  which  the  writer 
may  have  got  from  some  other  narrative,  or  general  facts  in  the  history 
of  the  time. 

X  Cf.  1  Chronicles  iii.  22. 


LEGENDARY  STORY  OF  EZRA.  87 

appointed  a  gathering  on  the  bank  of  the  Canal 
of  Ahava  near  Babylon  ;  they  encamped  there  for 
three  days,  and  their  leader  held  a  sort  of  review  and 
took  a  census  of  his  band.  All  were  priests  {cohanim) 
or  laymen  (the  mehiniin,  or  doctors  of  the  law,  must 
have  been  counted  as  such).  It  was  found  that 
there  were  neither  lévites  to  serve  the  priests,  nor 
7iethinim,  serfs  of  Solomon  (or,  as  they  were  then  called, 
"servants  of  David  and  the  princes"),  to  minister  to 
the  lévites.  Ezra  sent  heads  of  families  and  some  of 
the  mehinim  to  a  certain  Iddo,  chief  of  the  nethinim, 
who  lived  at  a  place  called  Kasifia,*  in  order  to  pro- 
vide servants  for  the  House  of  God.t  Thirty-eight 
lévites  and  two  hundred  and  tw^enty  iietliinim  joined 
the  band  of  emigrants. 

Before  setting  out,  the  caravan  united  in  a  solemn 
fast  on  the  bank  of  the  Ahava,  to  humble  themselves 
before  lahveli  and  to  obtain  his  blessing  on  their 
journey.  Ezra,  a  man  who  loved  order,  had  an  in- 
ventory taken  of  all  the  vessels  of  gold,  silver,  and 
copper-gilt  I  which  he  was  carrying  up  to  Jerusalem 
for  the  service  of  the  Temple,  and  gave  them  in 
charge  to  certain  priests  and  lévites,  who  were  to 
remit  them  in  safety  to  the  chief  rulers  of  the  Tem- 
ple. These  weighed  them  in  their  turn  in  the  lùkotli 
of  the  Temple,  to  see  if  their  weight  was  correct,  be- 
fore giving  a  discharge  to  their  bearers. 

*  Ezra  viii.  17.  The  text  is  certainl}^  faulty.  I  would  substitute 
rnx  S«l.     In  verse  18  Sdi^î^ïÎ  is  also  undoubtedly  a  proper  name. 

t  It  appears  he  did  not  know  that  there  were  already  lévites  at 
Jerusalem. 

X  jS'o  mention  is  made  of  coined  money. 


88  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

The  journey  was  fortunate.  It  lasted  four  months, 
lacking  eleven  days,  —  from  April  to  July.  On 
arrivinuc,  the  caravan  rested  three  days.  The  fourth 
day  Ezra  gave  in  his  accounts,  which  were  found 
correct;  the  gifts  were  committed  to  two  priests, 
Meremoth  the  son  of  Uriah,  and  Eleazar  the  son 
of  Phineas,  assisted  by  two  lévites.  The  accounts 
were  compared  and  duly  ratified.  The  new  arrivals 
offered  magnificent  sacrifices,  and  the  ]DOûr  feasted 
for  many  days. 

We  repeat,  it  is  doubtful  if  such  things  took  place 
simply  on  the  arrival  at  Jerusalem  of  a  priest  called 
Ezra  in  the  days  of  Artaxerxes  Longinianus  \  but 
the  facts  related  were  undoubtedly  true  when  any 
companies  of  consequence  from  the  East  arrived  to 
reinforce  the  Hierosolymite  idea  of  the  restoration 
of  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  —  a  hope  so  bold  yet  so 
little  understood.  As  always  happens  when  two 
currents  of  ideas  which  start  from  the  same  point 
meet  after  parallel  developments,  the  two  branches 
of  the  family  of  Israel  found  that  their  views  were 
different.  At  the  date  assigned  to  Ezra  they  had 
lived  apart  seventy-eight  years  ;  those  who  came 
out  of  Chaldea  were  richer  than  their  brethren  in 
Palestine,  more  cultivated,  and  more  scrupulous 
in  religious  observances.  There  could  not  but  be 
disagreements.  The  most  orthodox  party  always 
gets  the  better  of  the  less  orthodox  in  the  history 
of  Israel.  The  new  arrivals  soon  proved  severe 
censors   of  the   resident   population.     The   careless- 


LEGENDARY  STORY  OF  EZRA.  89 

ness  that  seemed  to  them  prevailing  in  Jerusalem 
appeared  backsliding.  One  thing  especially  made 
them  indignant,  —  the  very  little  care  the  population 
at  Jerusalem  took  to  keep  itself  apart,  in  the  choice 
of  wives,  from  the  surrounding  populations. 

Here  Ezra  is  at  one  with  Nehemiah.  To  com- 
bat abuses  that  he  considered  enormous,  he  em- 
ployed, we  are  told,  means  that  were  not  unsuited 
to  the  customs  of  the  time,  giving  out  that  he  was 
acting  under  the  authority  of  the  King  of  Persia. 
According  to  the  canonical  account  he  had  come  to 
Jerusalem  bringing  a  letter  from  King  Artaxerxes, 
which,  amongst  other  extraordinary  powers,  con- 
ferred on  him  the  right  to  appoint  magistrates  to 
administer  justice  according  to  the  Jewish  Law,  and 
to  teach  that  Law  to  those  who  did  not  know  it. 
The  law  of  God  and  the  law  of  the  Persian  king 
are  thus  in  some  sort  identified.  Ezra  had  received 
power  to  enforce  the  Law,  "  by  death,  by  exile,  by 
fines,  or  by  imprisonment." 

We  can  hardly  believe  that  Artaxerxes  ever  could 
have  written  such  a  letter. *"  We  doubt  that  Ezra 
ever  grounded  his  authority  on  such  a  document  ; 
we  would  rather  believe  it  an  invention  of  his 
biographer.!     What    may  be   true   is,   that,  having 

*  Compare  the  so-called  edict  of  Cyrus  with  Ezra  vii.  27.  The 
man  who  wrote  the  memoirs  of  Ezra  must  have  had  in  his  hands  that 
other  document.  Ezra  i.  ;  iv.  6;  vi.  13.  Examine  also  chap.  x.  All 
are  literally  fragments,  pious  romances. 

t  The  letter  has  its  echo  in  Ezra  viii.  22,  25,  36;  ix.  9.  It  is  part 
of  the  so-called  Memoirs. 


90  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

come  from  the  East,  he  may  have  uttered  threats 
giving  his  people  to  understand  that  he  had  lived  on 
terms  of  intimacy  with  the  king  and  with  his  officers, 
whom  undoubtedly  he  never  met  personally."^  It  is 
an  old  device  practised  by  the  Jews,  always  to  bring 
forward  a  plea  that  they  have  an  official  mission 
from  government.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
and  sects  in  general  which  pretend  to  despise  force, 
fall  into  the  same  error.  The  man  of  peace  is  very 
apt  to  plume  himself  on  the  favour  of  the  man  of 
war.  He  looks  towards  what  is  strong,  —  that  is, 
to  active  power  wherever  it  may  chance  to  be. 
Thus  the  Jews  have  persecuted  with  the  power  of 
Persian  kings  \  nay,  even  with  the  might  of  Rome 
itself.  No  man  is  more  domineering  than  a  priest 
when  he  can  make  use  of  the  secular  arm  ;  no  man 
more  insolent  than  the  Jew  when  a  functionary  not 
of  his  faith  is  placed  under  his  orders,  or  a  regiment 
is  at  his  command.  Fanatics  are  always  servile 
towards  those  in  power,  in  order  to  induce  them 
to  show  rigour  to  those  who  are  the  objects  of  their 
aversion.  We  have  spoken  elsewhere  t  of  the  weak- 
ness of  mind  that  supposes  lahveh  to  obtain  for  his 
people  the  protection  of  the  njighty.  By  favour 
of  the  Persian  king  he  caused  his  Temple  to  be 
rebuilt.  This  seems  to  us  rather  a  small  thing  for 
the  Almighty.  But  in  all  this  development  of  the 
Jewish  mind  we  need  not  look  for  a  motive  in 
reason. 

*  Ezra  viii.  22,  25. 

\  See  vol.  iii.  p  384  and  what  follows. 


LEGENDARY  STORY  OF  EZRA.  91 

Whether  Ezra  was  or  was  not  acting  under  Persian 
authority,  he  employed,  if  we  believe  the  documents 
concerning  him,  the  roughness  of  a  fanatical  gen- 
darme to  carry  out  his  work  of  reform.  Seconded  by 
a  certain  man  named  Shechaniah  son  of  Jehiel,  he 
organised  what  we  miprht  call  a  league  against  mixed 
marriages.  Not  only  did  the  members  of  this  league 
engage  never  to  contract  such  alliances  in  future,  but 
they  promised  to  send  away  the  poor  women  wliom 
they  had  lawfully  espoused,  and  also  their  children. 
Nearly  all  the  nobles,  especially  the  members  of  the 
sacerdotal  aristocracy,  drew  down  on  themselves  the 
anathemas  of  the  ultra-pious.  Several  resisted  ; 
others  had  recourse  to  deceptions  ;  some  sent  away 
their  wives,  but  retained  their  children.  But  the 
greater  part  committed  the  monstrous  act  required  of 
them  by  Ezra.  Almost  all  the  members  of  the  high- 
priest's  family  submitted,  and  offered  a  sacrifice  of 
expiation.  A  very  dangerous  fanaticism  had  now 
taken  root  in  Israel,  —  not  such  as  the  State  may 
exert,  but  what  zealots  may  accomplish  when  they 
claim  to  be  backed  by  official  power. 

The  mass  of  the  people,  however,  did  not  willingly 
submit.  The  debate  lasted  three  months  before  it 
was  settled.  A  sort  of  grand  assemblage  of  all  the 
inhabitants  of  Judea,  called  together  on  the  open 
space  before  the  Temple,  proved  very  tumultuous; 
they  demanded  time  to  send  each  case  before  a 
court,  on  pretext  that  a  heavy  rain  was  falling. 
But  finally,  as  was  always  the  case,  the  party  of  the 
zealots  won  the  victory. 


92  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 

One  tiling  which  shows  a  decided  step  made  by 
the  Jews  of  those  days  in  the  history  of  Judaism, 
was  that  Ezra,  though  certainly  a  descendant  of 
Aaron,  never  seems  to  have  exercised  the  functions 
of  a  priest.  Still  less  w^as  he  a  prophet.  He  was  a 
doctor  learned  in  the  Law  [sofer  mebin).  This  is 
decisive.  From  that  time  forward  it  is  easy  to 
foresee  that  it  is  not  the  colien  who  will  lead  in 
the  affairs  of  Judaism,  but  the  doctor.  To  obey  the 
Torah  being  the  chief  end  of  a  man's  life,  he  who 
interprets  the  Torah  has  the  most  power.  And 
who  should  nominate  this  interpreter  of  the  Torah  ? 
Not  the  body  of  the  priests  ;  not  the  Church  as 
a  whole  (that  idea  would  not  prevail  before  the 
second  century  of  the  Christian  era).  The  doctor 
will  be  appointed  for  his  knowledge,  his  merit,  his 
ease  of  address,  and  his  audacity.  The  sofer  maliir 
will  be  spiritual  king  in  Israel.  The  most  insig- 
nificant doctor  rising  in  the  synagogue,  if  he  has  a 
good  memory  and  confidence  in  himself,  will  be  able 
to  put  down  the  man  who  holds  authority. 

The  Talmud  was  the  destined  outcome  of  the  idea 
started  by  Ezra.  One  feels  that  Judaism  will  have 
no  organised  sacerdotal  body,  no  papacy,  no  oecu- 
menical councils.  It  will  be  something  like  Prot- 
estantism in  the  sixteenth  century,  —  a  struggle 
between  learned  leaders,  each  founding  his  opinions 
upon  certain  written  texts,  which  he  will  hold  to 
be  of  paramount  value. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   FINAL    CONSOLIDATION   OF    THE   TORAH. 

A  VERY  common  belief,  and  one  that  has  been  put 
forth  to  answer  many  purposes  and  in  different  ways, 
is  that  Ezra  had  an  important  share  in  the  re-editing 
of  the  Pentateuch.*  Some  think  he  rewrote  from 
memory  the  contents  of  the  books  lost  in  the  sack 
of  Jerusalem,  and  thus  restored  them  to  their  place. 
But  that  is  a  mere  childish  hypothesis,  which  has  its 
origin  in  the  apocryphal  books  of  Esdras,  written, 
it  is  supposed,  in  the  latter  years  of  the  first  cen- 
tury of  our  era,  for  w^hich,  notwithstanding.  Saint 
Jerome  and  other  fathers  of  the  Church  have  shown 
singular  complaisance.  According  to  others,  Ezra 
was  the  author  of  the  sacerdotal  parts  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, which  at  present  envelop  and  complete  the 
ancient  lahvist  portions.  Nothing  can  be  more  un- 
likely than  that  a  work  of  such  importance  should 
he  intrusted  to  a  mere  scribe  of  no  especial  ability. 
What  is  possible,  nay,  even  probable,  is  that  Ezra 
may  have  had  a  hand  in  putting  the  last  touches  to 
the  ritualistic  portions  of  the  levitical  law.     As  the 

*  See  vol.  iii.  p.  362,  note  1. 


94  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

covenant  made  in  the  days  of  Josiah  led  to  the  cre- 
ation of  new  texts  concerning  the  Law,  so  we  may 
suppose  that  the  covenant  of  Nehemiah,  which  differs 
little  from  that  of  Ezra,  left  its  trace  upon  the 
Torah.*  A  great  number  of  special  regulations 
had  never  been  written  down,  or  had  been  added  in 
a  sporadic  manner,  as  separate  laws. 

x\nd  even  when  the  Torah  of  lahveh  had  absorbed 
almost  the  whole  religious  consciousness  of  Israel, 
the  unity  of  the  book  was  not  yet  firmly  established. 
Copies  of  it  were  extremely  scarce  ;  no  two  of  them 
were  exactly  alike.  Many  Jews  considered  that  Deu- 
teronomy alone  comprised  the  Torah  ;  others  that 
the  Torah  contained  all  the  accumulation  of  reliç>:ious 
writings  both  before  and  after  the  days  of  Hezekiah, 
having  absorbed,  under  Josiah,  both  Deuteronomy 
and  many  supplementary  levitical  customs.  Others 
thought  it  consisted  only  of  a  small  collection  of 
the  laws  supposed  to  comprise  the  revelations  given 
to  Moses  on  Mount  Sinai. t 

The  fusion  of  all  this  into  one  code  seems  to  have 
been  after  the  restoration  of  public  worship  ;  the 
first  restoration  of  which  was  made  by  Zerubbabel 
and  Joshua  the  son  of  Josedeck,  when  literary  ability 
was  very  feeble.  The  safer ^  or  scribe,  appears  to  have 
had  little  to  do  with  it.    The  restoration  of  Nehemiah 


*  Observe  the  similarity  of  tlie  things  ordained  by  Ezra,  and  those 
by  Nehemiah  (Nehemiah  x.,  xii.,  also  p.  107,  &c.),  with  the  levitical 
code. 

t  See  vol.  iii.  p.  44  and  what  follows,  and  pp.  207,  243. 


FINAL    CONSOLIDATION  OF   THE    TO  RAH.         95 

(or  Ezra),  on  the  contrary,  was  mainly  the  work  of 
soferim,  or  mebinwi.  As  far  as  we  can  judge  of  the 
documents  in  the  possession  of  Nehemiah  or  Ezra, 
they  do  not  seem  to  have  been  at  first  acquainted 
with  the  Pentateuch  as  we  have  it  now.  But  during 
their  abode  in  Jerusalem  they  were  not  idle.  It  is 
quite  probable  that  the  different  portions  of  the 
Hexateuch  were  at  this  time  put  together  in  defini- 
tive form.  The  collection  formed,  as  we  think,  under 
Hezekiah,  and  enlarged  by  Deuteronomy  under  Jo- 
siah,  was  nearly  doubled  by  the  insertion  of  a  crowd 
of  laws,  enacted  at  various  periods,  and  proceeding 
from  divers  sources.  On  these  the  theoretical  essays 
of  Ezekiel  and  his  school  were  founded.  And  thence 
comes  the  important  fact  that  the  priestly  and 
levitical  code  has  not  the  unity  that  we  find  in 
Deuteronomy,  —  except,  indeed,  the  brief  code  of  the 
school  of  Ezekiel;^  and  this  seems  like  a  rounded 
pebble  which  no  after  changes  have  decomposed. 

In  what  concerns  the  laws,  the  work  of  insertion 
and  compilation  was  easy,  for  in  those  days  men 
were  not  particular  as  to  method  and  order  ;  but  in 
all  that  concerned  the  life  of  Moses  the  matter  was 
more  delicate. t  They  had  to  proceed  as  their  prede- 
cessors had  done  under  Hezekiah,  when  they  fused 

*  Leviticus  xviii.-xxvi. 

t  Many  episodes  of  levitical  origin  in  Exodus  and  Numbers  might 
be  explained  either  by  supposing  a  life  of  Moses  written  about  the 
year  500  b.  c,  from  a  priestly  or  levitical  point  of  view,  or  by  levitical 
and  sacerdotal  interpolations  made  by  the  old  Klohist.  In  general,  the 
work  of  the  levitical  interpolator  is  strikingly  like  that  of  the  Elohist 


96  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

together  two  documents,  —  one  lahvist,  the  other 
Elohist.  The  most  remarkable  instance  of  this  is 
the  fusion  of  the  rebellion  of  Dathan  and  Abiram 
with  the  revolt  of  Korah,  which  was  found  only  in 
new  lives  of  Moses.  The  fusion  has  been  very 
roughly  performed."^  As  to  the  episodes  of  Balaam, 
and  that  of  the  daughters  of  Zelophahad,  they  pro- 
ceeded by  way  of  simple  juxtaposition,  at  the  risk  of 
making  the  narrative  contradictory  or  redundant. 

If  Ezra  was  really  the  author  of  this  work  of  final 
compilation  and  arrangement,  we  must  attribute  to 
him  the  numerous  critical  remarks  and  glosses  — 
written  at  first  on  the  margin,  and  afterwards  in- 
serted in  the  text  —  which  are  to  be  found  in  the 
most  ancient  portions  of  the  Hexateuch.  These 
additions  are  sometimes  whole  paragraphs  explana- 
tory or  apologetic!  Often  on  the  margin  several 
texts  would  be  transcribed,  giving  the  look  of  ex- 
periments at  reconciliation.  These  texts  were  re- 
copied  later  into  the  place  to  which  they  seemed  to 
belong,  which  gave  rise  to  strange  repetitions.  These 
may  be  seen  particularly  in  lists  containing  numbers, 

(note  in  particular  what  concerns  tlie  manna).  But  then  we  should 
have  to  admit  that  this  fusion  of  the  writings  of  the  lahvist  with 
those  of  the  ancient  Elohist  took  place  in  the  fifth  century;  whereas, 
I  maintain  that  it  took  place  in  tlie  days  of  Ilezekiah.  After  the  Cap- 
tivity there  was  no  more  meddling  with  the  patriarchal  stories,  and  it 
is  probable  that  the  additions  made  to  the  old  text  of  the  history  of 
Moses  were  made  by  original  insertions,  not  by  incorporating  the 
pages  of  any  other  book. 

*  Numbers  xv.  1,  &c. 

t  The  most  striking  example  may  be  found  in  Numbers  xxvi.  9-12, 
which  was  certainly  inserted  later  than  the  last  fusion. 


FINAL   CONSOLIDATION  OF   THE    TO  RAIL         97 

in  which  the  sum  total  has  not  been  changed,  even 
when  one  or  two  items  have  been  added.* 

Putting  aside  the  personality  of  Ezra,  concerning 
which  we  have  very  little  to  go  upon,  we  should 
probably  be  not  far  wrong  in  placing  the  final  ar- 
rantrement  of  the  Hexateuch  about  the  year  450  B.  c. 
It  had  become  the  custom  to  write  after  the  Hexa- 
teuch the  books  of  Judges  and  of  Samuel,  as  they 
had  been  arranged  at  the  time  of  Hezekiah,  and 
revised  with  interpolations  in  Josiah's  day.  The 
books  of  the  Kings  followed,  with  many  passages  cut 
out,  of  which  the  compiler  takes  care  to  inform  us, 
so  as  to  increase  our  regret. 

Thus  was  formed,  in  about  four  centuries,  by  the 
union  of  the  most  diverse  materials,  that  strange  con- 
glomeration which  contains  fragments  of  epic  poetry, 
scraps  of  sacred  history,  bits  of  the  law  of  custom, 
ancient  popular  hymns,  the  stories  of  wild  tribes, 
Utopias  with  fictitious  religious  observances,  legend» 
stamped  with  fanaticism,  and  morsels  of  prophecy, 
—  all  coated  with  a  slag  of  piety,  which  has  made 
of  so  miscellaneous  a  collection  a  sacred  book,  the 
very  soul  and  heart  of  a  people.  It  is  not  uncom- 
mon in  Greece  to  meet  with  old  towns  built  in  the 
later  period,  and  sometimes  in  antiquity,  out  of  the 
ruins  of  ancient  monuments.  Blocks  of  marble  of 
various  sorts,  cut  with  skill  but  ill  assorted,  form 
the  first  layers,  with  gaps  between  them  filled  in 
with  materials  of  no  value.     Fragments  of  statues, 

*  Genesis  xlvii. 

~  VOL.  IV.  —  7 


98  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

fluted  shafts  of  columns,  are  mixed  in  with  rude 
rough  blocks  of  stone  ;  breaches  have  been  repaired 
by  the  insertion  of  layers  of  cement,  or  else  some 
modern  patchwork  fills  up  the  place,  as  rude  clamps 
hold  together  the  edges  of  disconnected  parts.  The 
citadel  of  the  town  is  but  a  heap  of  stones  in 
w^iich  modern  Greek  chiefs  have  made  loop-holes. 
The  whole  seems  barbarous,  but  you  have  inesti- 
mable materials  stowed  away  in  this  shapeless  con- 
fusion ;  and  if  you  demolish  the  masonry  you  may 
form  a  museum.  Such  is  Hebrew  history.  No  artis- 
tic sentiment  having  presided  over  its  construction, 
disorder  and  contradiction  may  be  found  on  every 
page  ;  and  we  may  be  glad  of  it.  If  an  historical 
artist  had  composed  the  structure,  he  would  have 
reçut  the  stones,  rectified  the  incongruities,  and 
filled  up  with  more  care  the  chinks  which  now  of- 
fend us.  But,  thanks  to  the  incoherence  of  the  final 
revision  of  the  ancient  Scriptures,  we  have  now  the 
immense  advantage  of  possessing  intact  authentic 
Hebrew  documents  of  the  ninth  or  tenth  centu- 
ries before  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ.  All  that  w^e 
need  do  to  find  them  is  simply  to  wash  them,  and 
to  peel  off  the  plaster  that  modern  renovators  have 
poured  into  tlie  interstices. 

The  old  Greeks,  who  did  everything  with  style  and 
art,  would  in  a  similar  case  have  worked  over  these 
materials  until  we  could  no  longer  have  recognised 
what  was  original.  The  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  are, 
like  the  body  of  ancient  Hebrew  history,  the  product 


FINAL    CONSOLIDATION  OF   THE    TORAH. 


99 


of  the  collection  of  many  earlier  fragments.  But 
the  Greeks  showed  genius  even  in  compilation  ;  they 
executed  their  work  with  such  perfection  that  the 
seams  and  discrepancies  unavoidable  in  it  can  be 
perceived  in  very  few  places.  The  Homer  of  the 
Hebrews  is  no  way  inferior  to  the  Homer  of  the 
Greeks  ;  but  he  has  couie  down  to  us  in  fragments, 
as  if  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  w^ere  known  to  us 
only  in  the  sections  preserved  in  the  Library  of 
Apollodorus,  or  in  the  Byzantine  chronographs. 

Meantime  the  living  animal  completed  itself.  Tt 
manifested  a  tendency  to  get  rid  of  a  sort  of  tail, 
which  according  to  the  ideas  of  the  time  injured  its 
unity.  The  principal  object  of  the  Torah  was  the 
legislation  of  Moses  ;  the  Jews  grew  to  consider  the 
records  that  succeeded  the  death  of  Moses  —  that  is, 
the  Book  of  Joshua  —  as  a  different  w^ork.  Joshua 
was  not  placed  in  the  same  scroll  as  Moses.  The 
name  of  Torah  was  only  given  to  the  part  whicli 
ended  bv  the  death  of  Moses  on  Mount  Nebo.* 
Here  was  the  divine  revelation  complete  ;  all  the 
rest  was  only  so  far  inspired  as  the  words  of  any 
religious  teacher  may  claim  to  be.t 

After  the  days  of  Nehemiah.  or  if  you  will  of  Ezra, 
the  Torah  w^as  more  regularly  circulated.  Before  that 
time  it  had  been  a  creation  of  the  mind,  which  all 
men  had  heard  of  but  few  even  of  the  learned  had 

*  The  Pentateuch  as  the  Samaritans  received  it  from  the  Jews, 
about  the  year  400  b.  c,  did  not  contain  the  Book  of  Joshua. 

t  Josephus,  Against  Apion.,  i.  8.  Compare  Philo,  De  mundi 
incorrupiibilUate,  vol.  ii.   (ed.  Mangey)  p.  491. 


100         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

read.  They  then  began  to  make  discoveries  which 
now  astonish  us.  They,  found  books  several  cen- 
turies old.  We  have  often  seen  how  they  introduced 
as  novelties  into  their  own  writings  commands  that 
had  appeared  long  before  in  older  documents.  The 
Torah  was  not  a  code  of  laws  promulgated  by  the 
State  and  administered  by  judges  ;  it  was  a  sacred 
book,  containino;  ordinances  to  which  the  stricter  Jews 
desired  to  conform,  but  which  till  after  the  days  of 
which  we  speak  had  behind  it  no  sanction  of  au- 
thority. Now  all  will  be  changed.  In  a  few  years 
the  Torah  will  have  the  force  of  law.  The  doctor 
of  the  law  will  become  a  jurist  ;  the  hethdin  will 
be  a  court  of  justice.  When  political  independence 
shall  have  disappeared,  the  Torah  will  become  a 
statute  everywhere  affecting  the  Jew.  It  will  fol- 
low him  whithersoever  he  may  go,  and  the  Talmud 
will  be  its  authorised  commentary. 

About  the  time  when  the  last  touches  were  given 
to  the  Torah,  the  compilation  of  the  prophetic  docu- 
ments took  place  ;  a  second  collection  was  thus 
added  to  the  one  that  now  popularly  bore  the  almost 
superhuman  name  of  Moses.  In  making  the  col- 
lection precedence  was  given  to  length,  always  so 
dear  to  the  East.  After  the  three  great  inspired 
prophets,  —  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel,  which 
were  written  down  exactly  as  they  were  read,  —  they 
placed  other  shorter  writings  which  bore  other  names. 
Haggai  and  Zechariah,  who  belonged  only  to  the 
preceding  generation,    closed  the   volume.      At  the 


FINAL   CONSOLIDATION  OF  THE   TOR  A  H.        loi 

close  of  Zechariah  were  inserted  some  older  frag- 
ments, which  —  thanks  to  the  place  given  them,  and 
perhaps  to  a  certain  misleading  likeness  of  name  — 
passed  for  the  writings  of  Zechariah.* 

The  little  library  of  the  prophetic  writings  thus 
formed  is  far  from  presenting  to  us  all  that  Hebrew 
genius    produced    in    that    line.     Already    perhaps, 
before    the    Captivity,    a   selection   had    been   made 
especially  from  the  prophets  who  prophesied  before 
Isaiah.     It    seems    impossible    that    all    the    literary 
activity  of  such  men  as  Hosea  and  Amos  should  have 
been  summed  up  in  a  few  pages.     The  volume  that 
was  later  called  that  of  the  Minor  Prophets  is  only 
an   Anthology  drawn  from   a  much  larger  volume, 
comprehending  particularly  writings  concerning  the 
kingdom  of  Israel.     The  principles  that  guided  the 
authors  of   this   Anthology   we  can   easily   perceive. 
Like   almost    all  the  Israelites   who  have    held  the 
kalam,  they  wished  for  proof.     They  took  by  pref- 
erence, first,  the  passages  which  favoured  the  idea 
of  union  between  the  kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Israel  ; 
and,  secondly,  declamations  such  as  proved  that  even 
from  ancient  times  the  idea  of  a  Messiah  had  had 
birth.     This   was,   as    we    have    seen,   the    inspiring 
feeling    of   the    great    Anonymous    Prophet   who    in 
Babylon,  about  536,  constituted  himself  the  continuer 
of  Isaiah,  and  was  so  deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit 
of   ancient   prophecy.     The  insertion  of  the  curious 
Book  of  Jonah  into  the  canon  was  due,  perhaps,  to  his 
*  See  vol.  ii.  pp.  391,  392,  and  vol.  iii.  p.  274,  note  1. 


I02         HISTORY  OF   THE   PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

universalist  and  humanitary  character.  The  vokime 
of  the  Minor  Prophets  was  a  sort  of  Selectee,  a  collec- 
tion of  passages  considered  to  have  reference  to  the 
Messiah.  It  saved  the  early  Christians  in  this  way 
much  trouble  :  the  choice  of  prophetic  passages  had 
been  made  ready  to  their  hands. 


CHAPTER   X. 

PROMULGATION    OF    THE    LAW. 

Thus,  it  may  be  seen,  criticism  has  reduced  almost  to 
nothing  the  share  of  Ezra  in  editino;  the  Hexateuch. 
But  can  he  have  been  the  promulgator  of  that  Torah 
which  he  did  not  draw  up,  and  which  from  that  day 
forth  was  to  be  as  it  were  the  sole  centre  of  the  life 
of  Israel?  The  narrative  which  has  comedown  to 
us  has  on  this  point  no  greater  historical  value  than 
all  the  rest.  It  may,  however,  give  us  a  general 
idea  of  an  event  which  under  one  form  or  another 
must  have  left  a  deep  trace  on  the  Jewish  mind. 

Eloquent  discourses  in  praise  of  some  object,  mis- 
sions such  as  the  Jesuits  subsequently  set  on  foot, 
solemn  covenants  ending  in  feasts  and  sacrifices, 
were  very  much  to  the  taste  of  the  Jews.  A  number 
of  legendary  stories  coming  down  from  the  times  of 
Moses  and  of  Joshua  induced  an  iuiaginative  people 
to  take  satisfaction  in  scenes  of  heritli,  or  of  cove- 
nant, which  seemed  like  a  fresh  departure  into  new 
eras  in  the  relations  of  lahveh  with  his  people. 
Ezra  had  contemplated  a  brilliant  occasion  of  the 
kind.*      The  seventh    month   (Tisri),   answering  to 

*  Nehemiah  viii.  The  real  Book  of  Ezra  consists  of  four  chapters 
—  vii.,  viii.,  ix.,  x.  —  of  the  book  called  the  Book  of  Ezra,  and  chapters 


104         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

the  autumn  equinox,  brought  the  Feast  of  Taber- 
nacles, when  all  Israel  passed  several  days  in  huts  of 
boughs  in  the  open  air.  The  very  small  extent 
of  country  occupied  by  the  colonists  who  had  re- 
turned to  their  own  land,  made  it  easy  to  assemble 
nearly  all  the  nation  at  the  same  place.  This  cir- 
cumstance greatly  favoured  the  stroke  planned  by 
Ezra.  In  a  year,  probably  about  450  b.  c,  almost 
all  Israel,  summoned  by  the  great  agitator  and 
scribe,  assembled  at  Jerusalem.  The  stage  for  the 
occasion  was  in  the  centre  of  the  great  open  space 
near  that  gate  of  the  Temple  known  as  the  Water- 
gate. As  the  wall  was  not  yet  built,  the  crowd 
spread  out  towards  what  is  now  the  seraglio. 

Before  the  assembled  people  Ezra  presented  him- 
self, we  are  told,  holding  the  roll  of  the  Torah  in  his 
hand.  Here  is  the  scene  as  it  is  related  to  us  in  the 
ancient  Life  of  Ezra  :  — 

And  Ezra  the  priest  brought  the  Law  before  the  con- 
gregation, both  men  and  women,  and  all  old  enough  to  hear 
with  understanding,  upon  the  first  day  of  the  seventh 
month.  And  he  read  therein  before  the  broad  place  that 
was  before  the  Water-gate,  from  early  morning  until  mid- 
day, in  the  presence  of  the  men  and  the  women  and  those 
tliat  could  understand  ;  and  the  ears  of  all  the  people  were 

viii,.  ix.,  and  x.  of  the  Book  of  Nehemiah.  The  First  Book  of  Esdras 
speaks  of  thino^s  in  this  order  (Kuenen,  /7^.s•^  crit.  des  livres  de  l'Ane. 
Testament^  i.  502).  The  name  of  Nehenniah  has  been  erroneously 
introduced  in  viii.  9,  by  the  editor  of  Chronicles.  The  memoirs  of 
Nehemiah  never  mention  Ezra.  If  Ezra  had  been  contemporary  with 
the  pious  Q^overnor,  what  opportunities  there  would  have  been  to  men- 
tion him,  especially  in  connection  with  the  rebuilding  of  the  wall  ! 


PROMULGATION  OF  THE  LAW.  105 

attentive  unto  the  book  of  the  Law.  And  Ezra  the  scribe 
stood  upon  a  pulpit  of  wood  which  they  had  built  for  that 
purpose,  and  beside  him  stood  Mattithiah  and  Shema  and 
Anaiah  and  Uriah  and  Hilkiah  and  Maaseiah  on  his  right 
hand  ;  and  on  his  left  hand,  Pediah  and  Mishael  and 
Malchiajah  and  Hashum,  and  Ilashbaddanah,  Zcchariah, 
and  Meshullam.  And  Ezra  opened  the  book  in  the  sight 
of  all  the  people  (for  he  was  above  all  the  people)  ;  and 
when  he  opened  it  all  the  people  stood  up  ;  and  Ezra 
blessed  laveh  the  great  God,  and  all  the  people  an- 
swered, Amen  !  Amen  !  with  the  lifting  up  of  their  hands; 
and  they  bowed  their  heads, .  and  worshipped  the  Lord 
with  their  faces  to  the  ground.  Also  Josliua  and  Hani  and 
Sherebiah,  Jamin,  Akkub,  Shabbethai,  Hodiah,  Maaseiah, 
Kelita,  Azariah,  Jozabad,  Hanan,  Pelaiah,  and  the  lévites 
caused  the  people  to  understand  the  Law  ;  and  the  people 
stood  in  their  place.  And  they  read  in  the  book  in  the  law 
of  God  distinctly  ;  and  they  gave  the  sense,  so  that  they 
understood  the  reading. 

The  Israelites  all  wept.  Ezra  and  the  lévites  * 
comforted  tbera,  and  exhorted  them  to  rejoice.  The 
next  morning  they  set  themselves  to  understand  what 
Ezra  the  day  before  had  read.  The  Torah  from 
which  he  had  read  seems  to  have  been  a  new  docu- 
ment to  them,  unknown  until  that  day.  They  found 
an  account  of  how  they  should  observe  the  Feast  of 
Tabernacles.!  The  people  hastened  at  once  to  keep 
the  feast  accordino;  to  the  law  of  Moses,  indeed,  but 
a  law  foro:otten  and  fallen  into  disuse  from  time 
immemorial.     The  feast  was  kept  seven  days  in  ar- 

*  JSTehemiah  viii.  9.     The  editor  of  Chronicles  has  added  Kniyit«n 
t  Numbers  xxix.  ;  Leviticus  xxiii. 


io6         HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 

bours  erected  with  boughs  on  the  roofs  of  the  houses, 
in  the  courts,  in  the  open  space  before  the  principal 
door  of  the  Temple,  in  the  square  of  the  Water- 
gate, and  in  that  before  the  Gate  of  Ephraim.  Each 
day  they  listened  to  reading  from  the  Torah.  The 
eighth  day  there  was  a  solemn  assembly.* 

The  narrative  thus  explains  by  successive  and  re- 
peated acts  what  was  probably  the  result  of  long 
habit  and  slow  transformation.  The  feasts  furnished 
occasions  for  what  w^e  call  missions,  retreats,  revi- 
vals, when  people  assemble  for  mutual  edification 
and  endeavour  to  revive  in  each  other  zeal  for  the 
law  of  God,  such  as  the  piety  of  the  time  conceived 
it.  The  reading  of'  the  Law  made  part  of  all  these 
feasts.  They  prepared  themselves  for  them  by 
separating  themselves  from  strangers,  by  fasting, 
mourning,  and  humiliation,  by  the  Psalms  of  peni- 
tence, and  by  confession  of  sins,  their  own  and 
their  fathers.  The  lévites  assembled  on  a  plat- 
form, and  played  an  important  part  on  these  pious 

occasions. t 

These  manifestations  gave  rise  to  certain  religious 
compositions,  a  kind  of  public  confession,  —  one  of 
which  at  least  we  have  recorded  in  the  memoirs  of 
Ezra,|  and  several  of  which  found  their  way  into  the 
Book  of  Psalms.  I  wûsh  to  speak  further  of  these 
penitential  Psalms,  which  have  become  of  such  great 
importance  in  the  devotions  of  pious  Christians,  — 

*  Compare  Deuteronomy  xvi. 

\  Nehemiah  ix.  X  Ibid. 


PROMULGATION  OF  THE  LAW.  107 

especially  of  the  one  known  as  the  Miserere*  in 
which  the  religious  sorrow  of  our  entire  race  has 
found  so  perfect  an  expression  from  generation  to 
generation.  There  are  also  psalms  which  may  be 
considered  holy  narratives  in  verse,t  in  which  the 
author,  recalling  the  ancient  wonders  done  by  God 
for  the  protection  of  his  people,  seeks  to  prove  that 
such  miracles  may  occur  again,  and  above  all  things 
wishes  to  establish  as  a  truth  that  all  the  sorrows 
that  have  fallen  upon  Israel  are  because  the  people 
have  been  unfaithful  to  the  Law. 

It  was  natural  that  these  pious  efforts  crowned 
with  great  success  should  result  in  a  species  of  new 
covenant, I  even  as  the  proclamation  of  Deuteronomy 
under  Josiah  had  called  to  mind  the  first  covenant  of 
Israel  with  lahveh  on  the  basis  of  the  Law  of  Moses. 
According  to  some  accounts,  the  covenant  was  put 
in  writing  with  all  the  formalities  of  a  civil  contract  ; 
then  all  the  nobles,  priests,  and  lévites  signed  it  by 
appending  their  seals.  The  rest  of  the  people  gave  in 
their  adherence,  —  both  those  who  had  returned  from 
exile,  and  the  descendants  of  those  who  had  never 
quitted  their  country,  but  had  kept  themselves  aloof 
from  any  admixture  with  the  surrounding  nations. 
All,  except  children  not  old  enough  to  understand, 
bound  themselves  by  a  solemn  oath  to  obey  the  entire 

*  Psalm  li.  Ul  œdificentur  mûri  Jerusalem  proves  that  it  was  com- 
posed before  445  b,  c. 

t  Psalms  cv.,  cvi.,  cxxxv.,  cxxxiv.,  &c.  The  manner  in  which  the 
episode  of  Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram  is  mentioned  gives  us  its  date. 

X  Nehemiah  x. 


io8         HISTORY  OF   THE    PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL, 

Torah  ;  to  abstain  from  mixed  marriages  ;  to  buy 
nothing  on  the  Sabbath,  nor  on  any  holy  day,  from 
strangers  who  might  offer  merchandise  or  provisions 
for  sale  ;  to  observe  the  seventh  year  of  release,  — 
both  as  to  giving  the  land  rest,  and  the  release  of  all 
debts  that  had  been  made  on  mortgage.  They  also 
bound  themselves  to  give  each  year  the  third  part  of 
a  shekel*  for  the  service  of  the  Temple,  for  the 
shew-bread,  for  the  daily  sacrifices  and  offerings,  for 
the  Sabbaths,  new  moons,  and  feasts,  and  for  the 
sin-offerings,  etc.  ;  and  they  regulated  by  lot  the 
offering  of  wood  to  be  burnt  upon  the  altar.  They 
promised  to  bring  yearly  the  first  fruits  of  their 
grain,  of  their  wine,  oil,  and  fruit,  to  the  Temple  ; 
also  the  first-born  of  their  children  and  their  animals, 
and  this  without  prejudice  to  a  tithe  of  the  products 
of  the  soil  which  was  collected  by  the  lévites  on  the 
spot.  The  priests  acted  as  overseers  of  the  lévites 
during  this  work,  and  the  lévites  were  to  bring  the 
tenth  part  of  the  tithes  they  collected  to  the  priests 
in  the  liskoth  of  the  Temple.  These  liskoth  were 
thus  converted  into  store-chambers,  in  which  were 
laid  up  corn,  wine,  and  oil  for  the  use  of  the  priests  ; 
there  also  were  kept  all  things  necessary  for  the 
service  of  the  sanctuary  ;  also  in  small  chambers, 
such  as  are  still  found  in  the  East  in  connection  with 
mosques,  lived  the  priests  during  their  term  of  ser- 
vice, the  porters,  the  singers,  and  such  lévites  as 
were  necessary  for  the  daily  service  of  the  Temple  : 

*  Matthew  xvii   24,  —  half  a  shekel. 


PROMULGATION  OF  THE  LAW, 


109 


the  rest  could  consume  their  portion  of  the  tithes 
wherever  they  pleased. 

In  all  this  they  believed  themselves,  especially  in 
what  concerned  the  singers,  to  be  following  out  the 
laws  laid  down  by  David  and  Solomon.  Asaph  was 
more  and  more  esteemed  as  the  creator  of  the  music 
of  the  sanctuary,  and  they  were  confirmed  in  the 
belief  that  David  was  the  author  of  a  great  number 
of  the  tehilllm  and  the  todoth.^ 

From  that  time  forward  the  Torah  existed  as  a 
completed  book.  A  few  additions  are  believed  to 
have  been  subsequently  made  to  it  ;  but  legislation 
was  settled  in  all  its  essential  parts,  and  the  copies 
made  differ  little  from  each  other.  The  book  was 
too  long  to  be  copied  on  a  single  scroll  ;  the  prac- 
tice arose  of  dividing  it,  uniformly,  into  portions 
making  five  volumes,  or  megillotliA  Writing  was 
much  more  common  than  it  had  been  before  this 
time.  Public  reading  had  been  hitherto  the  custom  ; 
now  private  reading  was  about  to  commence.  The 
sefer  ceased  to  be  a  document  to  be  consulted  in 
time  of  need,  and  became  a  book  of  wdiich  there 
were  many  copies  all  alike.|  A  similar  revolution 
was  going  on  about  this  time  in  Greece.  The 
"Muses"  of  Herodotus  mark  out  the  passage  from 
the  book  intended  to  be  read  aloud  in  the  open 
air,  to  the  book  to  be  read  at  home. 

*  Nehemiah  xii.  44-47,  are  additions  by  the  author  of  Chronicles. 
Compare  Ezra  iii.  10;  Xehemiah  xii.  24,  35,  36. 
t  This  was  called  "  five  fifths  "  of  the  Torah. 
X  Note  Deuteronomy  xvii.  18,  19. 


no         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Such  a  revolution  almost  always  coincides  with 
the  time  when  writing-materials  are  becoming  com- 
mon and  cheap.  In  Greece  as  well  as  in  the 
East  the  papyrus,  prepared  in  Egypt,  was  largely 
used.  Books  of  philosophy,  which  till  now  in  Gre- 
cian countries  had  consisted  only  of  poems  of  five 
or  six  hundred  lines,  in  which  each  word  was  duly 
weighed,  then  written  upon  tablets  and  deposited 
in  a  temple,  were  soon  to  become  charming  con- 
versational chats.  As  soon  as  paper  becomes  cheap, 
people  begin  to  write  as  they  speak  ;  Plato's  Dia- 
logues replace  the  dark  sayings  of  Heraclitus.  In 
Israel  at  about  the  same  date  books  began  to  be 
multiplied  ;  many  men  could  read,  had  copies  of  the 
Law,  and  meditated  daily  upon  it.  The  book  was 
cut  up  into  sections  for  the  convenience  of  readers  in 
public.  The  Bible  began  to  exist  in  the  coniplete 
sense  of  the  word.  At  first  it  was  only  the  Hexa- 
teuch  ;  then  the  volume  of  the  prophetical  books 
was  united  to  the  Hexateuch,  and  gave  a  new  and 
powerful  stimulant  to  piety. 

Thus  in  the  Semitic  world  was  created  the  first 
Qoran,  or  book  for  public  reading.  With  us,  we 
have  but  one  word  for  what  is  to  be  read  privately 
or  in  public.  Among  Semitic  people  the  word  qara 
(or  kara)  means  only  for  public  reading."^  Mikra 
was  the  sacred  text  laid  before  the  reader  on  a 
pulpit  or  a  reading-desk.t 

*  For  private  reading  the  word  haga  was  used. 
f  Nehemiah  viii.  8.    • 


PROMULGATION  OF   THE   LAW. 


Ill 


One  is  sometimes  surprised  that  the  revision  of 
the  Torah  was  not  carried  a  step  further,  and  that 
the  Jews,  whose  whole  bent  at  this  period  was 
towards  the  creation  of  laws  and  ordinances  for 
the  public  service  of  religion,  did  not  break  into 
the  historical  framework  of  their  Scriptures,  and 
form  a  code  drawn  up  methodically  and  unencum- 
bered by  startling  contradictions.  The  temptation 
to  do  this  must  have  been  all  the  strong;er  because 
within  a  few  years  Deuteronomy  had  been  put  forth 
as  a  Torah  in  itself,  intended  to  replace  former  docu- 
ments which  contained  many  contradictions.  The 
scrupulous  good  faith  of  the  scribes  in  dealing  witli 
their  ancient  scriptures  carried  the  day  against  any 
attempt  at  change.  They  preserved  all  the  irreg- 
ularities and  contradictions.  It  was  not  until  the 
second  century  of  the  Christian  era  that  they  at- 
tempted any  regular  classification  of  their  Law, 
which  may  be  seen  in  the  titles  of  the  Mishna.  If 
we  want  what  is  perfectly  systematic,  we  must  seek 
it  in  the  writings  of  Moses  Maimonides,  in  the  Mid- 
dle Ages.  In  law  as  in  dogma,  Israel  never  con- 
sented to  substitute  scholastic  summaries  for  ancient 
documents.  Thev  thus  avoided  the  difficulties  result- 
ing  from  a  central  theological  authority,  like  that 
of  the  Church  in  after  times  ;  but  casuistic  disputes 
were  only  the  more  eager.  For  several  centuries 
they  were  the  plague-spot  in  the  life  of  Israel. 

To  sum  up  what  has  been  said,  it  is  not  the 
Torah  which  has  transformed  the  world.    The  school 


112  HISTORY  OF   THE   PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

of  Ezra  and  of  the  Rabbi  Akibah  could  never  have 
done  more  than  form  a  stroncr.  intolerant,  exclusive 
sect.     What  has  transformed    the  world,   what   has 
founded  the  universal   religion,   is    the   idealism   of 
the  Prophets,  the  proclamation  of  a  future  of  justice 
for  mankind.     It  is  the  idea  of  worship  without  sac- 
rifice.—  worship,  consisting  in  hymns  of  praise  and 
heartfelt  homage.      This  is   the   doctrine,   preached 
by  the  Prophets,  revived  by  the  Essenes,   the  The- 
rapeutie.    and   the  Christians,    which    has   produced 
in   the  world  the    most    extraordinary  of    religious 
revolutions.     The  Book  of  the  Covenant,  and  above 
all  the  Decalogue  —  the  first  written    expression  of 
the  old  prophetic  spirit  —  and  Deuteronomy,  so  far 
as  it  is  the  echo  of  more  ancient  books,  have  a  first 
place  in  this  revolution.     As  for  the  levitical  party, 
the  men  whose  religion   consisted  in   observance   of 
the  ceremonial   law,   Christianity  made   an   end   of 
it,  and  with  good  reason.     The  priestly  code  never 
recovered  importance  until  the  Church,   grown   old 
and    clericalised.    became    by    successive    downward 
steps   a    mere  levitical   body,   not    unlike    that    for 
which  the   sacerdotal  code    had  been  drawn  up  to- 
wards  the   close    of   the    sixth    century   before   the 
Christian  era. 

Judaism  by  its  seclusion,  in  part  voluntary  and 
in  part  compulsory,  developed  in  a  levitical  and 
sacerdotal  direction.  After  the  Bible,  it  made  the 
Talmud.  But  the  fountain  whence  the  livino^ 
strength  of  Israel  came  was  inexhaustible.     Whilst 


PROMULGATION  OF  THE  LAW.  113 

writers  of  the  school  of  Jabneh  put  forth  their 
subtleties,  Christianity,  the  legitimate  olfspring  of 
Judaism,  was  conquering  the  world.  The  Bible 
became  the  universal  book;  and,  after  all,  we  may 
well  pardon  the  nation  to  which  we  are  indebted 
for  the  Bible,  for  having  written  the  Talmud. 

Ezra,  as  we  have  seen,  represents  less  a  man 
than  a  spirit, —  a  spirit  in  opposition  to  that  of  the 
Prophets.  The  fate  of  Israel  was  in  his  day  decided. 
In  its  bosom  it  cherished  two  opposite  magnetic  cur- 
rents ;  and  as  one  or  the  other  had  the  predominance, 
so  its  historv  was  determined.  The  Torah  under 
Ezra's  name  won  a  complete  victory.  Ezra  is  the 
incarnation  of  pharisaism  in  the  original  meaning 
of  the  word.  The  true  Jew  is  in  his  eyes  a  nihdal, 
—  one  "separate," — or,  what  comes  to  the  same 
thing,  a  joherous,  or  (in  Chaldean)  pheris*  The 
pheris  thus  becomes  the  perfect  Israelite. — the  pure 
man,  who  turns  his  back  on  all  corruptions,  assured 
of  the  favour  of  lahveh.  A  devotee  of  this  kind 
can  be  consoled  for  not  possessing  power  in  the 
world  onlv  bv  an  inordinate  spiritual  pride.  Jesus, 
five  hundred  years  after  Ezra,  will  appear  and  give 
the  victory  to  the  prophetic  spirit.  The  earliest 
Christian  writings  speak  of  pharisaism  as  the  perver- 
sion  of  the  reliçrion  of  the  Jews.t  and  of  their  moral 
sense. 

The  second  Isaiah  had  hoped  far  digèrent  things. 

*  See  Xehemiah  xiii.  30. 
t  See  the  Synoptical  Gospels. 
VOL.  IV.  —  8 


114         HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

His  Jerusalem,  whose  gates  were  open  day  and  night 
to  receive  all  nations,  had  nothing  in  common  with 
the  closed  portals  of  a  Jerusalem  into  which  none 
could  enter  without   all  kinds  of  formalities.     The 
great  idealist    seer  would   have   been   much    aston- 
ished had  he  been  told  that  to  worship  lahveh  on 
Mount  Zion  circumcision  was  indispensable.      By  a 
singular  reaction  lahveh  became  once  more  the  ex- 
clusive property  of  Israel.     The  old  protector  of  his 
chosen  people  reappeared  as  a  god  who  was  selfish, 
perverse,  inimical  to  the  human  race,  since  all  man- 
kind were   set  aside  unjustly  for  the  benefit  of  the 
chosen  race.    lahveh,  brother  of  Chemosh,  the  lahveh 
of  the  time  of  David,  had  no  Torah.     That  made 
all  the  difference.     The  materialistic  Torah  of  Ezra 
was  a  study  of  how  to  make  a  bargain  with  lahveh, 
by  strict  observance  of  precepts  which  he  exacted 
from  his  people,  for  the  good  things  at  his  disposal. 
The   people   endeavoured    in  all  ways  to  meet   the 
wishes   of    this    exacting    Divinity.       By   a    grand 
hymnology  they  satisfied  his  love  for  human  praise 
and  glory;  and  in  return  he  was  supposed  to  give 
all  earthly  delights  through  the  instrumentality  es- 
pecially of  men   of  war,  whose  hearts  were  in  his 
hand,    so   that  he  could   turn  them  whatever  way 
he  would. 


CHAPTER   XL 

BIGOTRY. 

As  it  was  evident  that  the  heathen  world  would  not 
take  hold  of  the  skirts  of  a  man  who  was  a  Jew 
to  worship  in  a  place  where  the  Gentile  would  meet 
only  with  insult  and  exclusion^  it  became  clear  that 
the  triumph  of  Israel  would  be  due  at  a  future  day 
to  one  who,  like  Jesus,  would  follow  in  the  steps  of 
the  great  Anonymous  Prophet,  and  be  the  opposite 
to  Nehemiah.  But  in  the  history  of  a  great  revo- 
lution one  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  conservatives. 
Without  them,  all  would  be  chaos.  The  destiny  of 
France  is  to  complete  her  revolution.  Those  who 
have  contributed  to  the  formation  of  France,  even 
when  they  were  of  all  men  the  least  revolutionary, 
were  contributing  to  make  the  revolution. 

All  the  vexatious  measures  of  the  extremists  in 
Jerusalem  were  taken,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  name 
of  the  King  of  Persia;  that  is,  in  the  name  of  an 
authority  that  at  other  times  was  spoken  of  with 
aversion  and  contempt.^^  This  is  no  uncommon 
practice  amongst  the  clergy.    They  are  always  either 

*  Ezra  vii.  25,  26;  Nehemiah  ix.  36,  37. 


ii6         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

rebellious,  or  else  they  pose  as  victims  when  they  al- 
lude to  the  civil  power  ;  but  they  become  ultra-loyal 
and  faithful  subjects  when  they  want  to  obtain  any 
edict  of  intolerance  against  the  liberals.  Keeping  a 
watch  on  others,  pious  spying,  and  other  bad  habits 
fostered  by  fanatics  afterwards  in  Christendom,  found 
in  Nehemiah  the  earliest  example.  He,  the  con- 
temporary of  Pericles,  was  the  first  Jesuit,  the  most 
dangerous  of  Jesuits.  Plato,  who  had  never  heard  of 
him,  has  drawn  his  portrait  in  his  "  Euthydemus,"  if 
indeed  that  dialogue  be  Plato's.  Euthydemus  is  not 
a  priest,  he  is  a  fanatical  layman.  Nehemiah  is  not 
a  priest.  Ezra,  according  to  fiction  and  tradition, 
was  only  a  scribe.  The  priests  —  above  all,  those  of 
the  family  of  the  high-priest  —  belonged  to  th^ 
aristocracy,  and  looked  out  for  rich  wives  ;  conse- 
quently they  were  more  inclined  than  other  Jews 
to  contract  friendly  alliances  with  powerful  families 
who  worshipped  lahveh  after  the  old  forms,  and  had 
their  centre  in  Samaria.  In  Judaism,  as  afterwards 
in  Protestantism,  it  was  the  laymen  who  were  fanat- 
ics ;  rigorous  reforms  were  forced  upon  the  priests, 
who  marched  without  remonstrance  under  the  ferule 
of  pious  laymen.  Not  a  single  name  is  given  of 
any  priest  who  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  reforms 
of  this  period.  The  Israelite  colien  was  never  a 
reformer;  but  his  facile  indifference  favoured  reforms. 
There  is  nothing  in  one  way  more  dangerous  than  a 
pleasure-loving,  unbelieving  priest.  He  will  sanction 
any  fanaticisms,  if  fanatics  will  leave  him  undis- 


BIGOTRY. 


117 


turbed.  One  of  the  most  terrible  outbreaks  of 
religious  fury  took  place  under  Leo  X.,  who  was 
himself  a  sceptic.  The  court  of  Rome  when  com- 
posed of  unbelievers  has  held  tapers  before  the 
advance  of  every  kind  of  pious  madness,  even  as 
the  priests  of  Nehemiah's  day  sounded  trumpets  in 
his  processions. 

We  have  frequently  had  occasion  to  observe  that 
the  various  laws  ascribed  to  Moses  were  no  real 
laws  in  the  ancient  kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Israel. 
Under  the  dominion  of  the  Persian  kings  these  laws 
were  first  applied  to  the  Jews  by  authority  of  the 
government.  Nehemiah  set  the  example.  But  the 
strict  observance  of  these  laws  was  at  first  intermit- 
tent. The  Torah  was  not  enforced  by  help  of  the 
civil  power  till  the  days  of  the  Asmonean  kings,  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  later.  Up  to  that  time  the 
strict  observance  of  the  ceremonial  law  —  the  law  of 
the  Torah  —  was  a  matter  of  individual  conscience, 
influenced  only  by  severe  public  opinion.  The  situa- 
tion of  the  Jews  was  much  like  that  of  the  Mahom- 
etans in  Alo;eria  under  French  rule.  The  Persian 
pekah  did  not  lend  himself  to  serve  the  theocratic 
law,  though  all  his  subordinates  considered  it  bind- 
ing upon  them  as  a  moral  law,  and  in  mixed 
matters  followed  it  as  something  personally  affect- 
ing themselves.  Many  difficulties  resulted  from  this 
state  of  things,  and  sometimes  cruel  punishments  ; 
so  that,  to  avoid  them,  many  Jews  went  voluntarily 
into  exile. 


ii8  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

The  thing  that  most  surprises  us  is  the  analogy 
between  these  ancient  Jews  and  the  Mahometans. 
Both  showed  the  same  incapacity  to  discern  between 
relio-ious  and  civil  association  :  both  were  intolerant  ; 
both  made  the  same  pretensions  of  austerity,  which 
naturally  degenerated  into  hypocrisy.  The  Jewish 
women,  like  those  among  the  Mussulmans,  had  no 
part  whatever  in  the  religious  movement.  Not 
many  returned  from  Babylon,  and  the  harsh  meas- 
ures enforced  by  the  fanatics  must  have  created 
bitter  feelings  amongst  the  feminine  population  of 
Jerusalem.  Semitic  religions,  of  the  Jewish  and 
Mahometan  type,  are  exclusively  men's  religions.* 
In  the  fifth  century  women  were  present  at  the 
religious  celebrations  ;  t  but  they  did  not  know  how 
to  write,  I  and  very  few  women  are  mentioned.  Not 
one  female  figure  in  those  days  comes  into  promi- 
nence. Male  genealogies,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
most  carefully  kept,  even  if  not  always  reliable.  § 
The  family  spirit,  as  understood  in  the  East,  was 
very  strong.  These  Jews,  though  transformed  by 
all  kinds  of  proselytisms,  changes,  and  selections, 
were  really  only  patriarchs  turned  bigots,  —  as  Ma- 
hometans in  our  own  day  are  simply  Arabs  who 
adhere  to  all  that  was  narrow  and  rio^orous  in 
their  original  national  character. 

The   bigot  was  at   this    period    coming  into    the 

*  See  vol.  iii.  p.  105. 

t  Nehemiah  x.  28-30;  xii.  13. 

X  Nehemiah  x.     No  woman  signed. 

§  Chronicles,  Ezra,  Nehemiah. 


BIGOTRY.  119 

world.  lahveh  had  ever  hated  presumption:  with 
vindictive  joy  he  cast  to  the  ground  the  young  rider 
who  pranced  too  proudly.  The  servant  of  lahveh 
was  to  be  humble,  gentle,  and  submissive.  Therefore 
the  worldly  man  he  considered  proud  and  insolent, 
because  he  did  not  affect  the  same  canting  humility 
as  himself.  The  long  war  between  the  devotee  and 
the  worldling  was  about  to  begin.  In  Greece  the 
class  of  men  who  had  laid  aside  all  prejudices  was 
increasing  without  opposition.  The  influence  of 
riches,  luxury,  aristocracy,  and  increasing  liberty  of 
thought  formed  men  of  elegance,  too  often  parasites 
of  the  great,  convinced  of  the  vanity  of  religious 
beliefs,  but  incapable  of  seeing  the  higher  truth  in 
morality.  Cyprus,  Phœnicia,  Lydia,  and  even  Egypt 
had  their  Beau  Brummels,  —  men  who  set  the  fash- 
ions, votaries  of  pleasure,  free  from  fanaticism,  whose 
society  was  much  liked  by  kings.  Crœsus  was  sur- 
rounded by  men  of  this  stamp.  Psammeticus,  King 
of  Egypt,  considered  his  greatest  misfortune  that 
which  had  befallen  his  boon-companion.*"  Aristip- 
pus  of  Cyrene,  who  affected  to  believe  in  nothing  but 
mere  enjoyment,  was,  though  he  had  no  religion,  a 
finished  man  of  the  world.  Pisistratus,  Solon,  and 
the  Seven  Wise  Men  of  Greece  represented  a  far 
superior  type,  —  love  of  truth  being  with  them  joined 
to  that  love  for  elegance  (somewhat  superficial) 
which  was  being  brought  into  fashion  by  the  rising 
dandyism   of  such  young  men.     Israel  had   indeed 

*  Herodotus  iii.  14,  15. 


I20  HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL. 

among  its  lechn  and  zedim  many  unbelievers  of  this 
species,  who  laughed  at  old  devotional  practices, 
with  the  free  and  easy  grace  of  men  of  the  world. "^ 
Between  these  and  the  saints  there  was  war  to  the 
death.  Women  in  general  took  the  side  of  the  lecim, 
and  made  light  of  the  other  party.  The  godly  as- 
serted that  lahveh,  to  punish  them  for  their  light- 
mindedness,  would  send  them  no  children.!  To 
understand  all  this  one  should  have  witnessed  the 
difference  between  the  Mahometan  puritan  and 
the  Mahometan  man  of  the  world.  The  idea  of 
there  being  any  absurdity  connected  with  any  reli- 
gious practice,  or  of  consideration  for  human  nature 
as  we  understand  it  now-a-days,  is  mere  nonsense 
in  the  eyes  of  a  Mahometan.  Religion,  far  from 
attracting  ridicule,  makes  the  man  most  exact  in 
its  observances  the  highest  in  the  esteem  of  the 
world. 

Times  of  religious  rigour  and  exclusiveness  are  by 
no  means  unwelcome  to  most  pious  men.  The  prin- 
cipal fault  of  tlie  Jews  is  a  disposition  to  annoy  and 
vex  each  other.  They  spend  their  lives  in  quarrel- 
ling and  then  making  up  their  quarrels.  A  revela- 
tion from  heaven,  about  which  one  feels  certain  one 
is  right,  makes  the  very  best  ground  of  quarrel. 
The  Law,  odious  to  those  who  aimed  at  liberty,  gave 

*  There  is  a  shade  of  meaninc:  in  this  word  zedim  which  at  this  time 
was  frequently  employed  to  designate  the  enemies  of  the  godly,  homi- 
nes prntervi  (the  proud).  Psalms  Ixxxvi.  14;  cxix.  21,  51,  69,  78; 
xix.  14;  Malachi  iii.  15,  10. 

t  See  tlie  fine  touches  in  the  story  of  Michal,  vol.  ii.  p.  42. 


BIGOTRY.  121 

perfect  peace  to  those  who  laid  it  to  heart.  Their 
joys  were  infinite  ;  and  the  greatest  of  all  was  that 
of  seeing  their  desire  upon  their  enemies.  At  a  low 
stage  of  moral  culture  in  a  society  divided  into 
small  circles,  one  social  group  finds  satisfaction  in 
any  evil  that  befalls  another.  The  Jew  who  was 
conscious  of  his  own  strict  observance  of  the  Law 
could  enjoy  the  pleasure  mankind  delights  in  most, 
—  that  of  cordially  disliking  the  man  who  holds  dif- 
ferent opinions  from  himself.  Such  an  one,  though 
poor,  is  happy.  Nothing  gives  more  happiness  than 
living  by  rule,  under  strict  discipline. 

FIRST    CHOIR. 

Blessed  is  every  one  that  feareth  laliveh, 
That  walketh  in  his  ways. 

SECOND    CHOIR. 

For  thou  shalt  eat  the  labour  of  thy  hands  : 

Happy  shalt  thou  be,  and  it  shall  be  well  with  thee. 

Thy  wife  shall  be  as  a  fruitful  vine 
In  the  innermost  parts  of  thy  house, 

Thy  children  like  olive-plants 
K/Ound  about  thy  table. 

FIRST    CHOIR. 

Behold  that  thus  shall  the  man  be  blessed  that  fearetli  lahveh. 

SECOND    CHOIR. 

lahveh  shall  bless  thee  out  of  Zion, 

And  thou  shalt  see  the  good  of  Jerusalem  all  the  days  of  thy 

life. 
Yea,  thou  shalt  see  thy  children's  children. 
Peace  be  upon  Israel.* 

*  Psalm  cxxviii. 


122         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF   ISRAEL, 

Riches,  consideration,  and  many  children  (the 
blessings  most  desired  in  those  days)  are  to  be  the 
recompense  of  the  righteous.  As  to  the  unbeliever, 
he  has  hardly  any  right  to  live.  The  ungodly  shall 
have  nothing  but  misfortune,  —  so  that  one  wonders 
how  in  a  world  governed  according  to  the  views  of 
the  psalmist  any  man  could  be  so  stupid  as  to  be 
wicked.  A  nation  so  confident  that  virtue  is  the 
best  of  all  investments  would,  one  would  suppose, 
have  been  virtuous  without  exception. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  LAST  GLEAMS  OF  PKOPHECY. 

Though  greatly  weakened  from  its  early  vigor,  the 
prophetic  spirit  still  survived.  We  have,  as  it 
were,  its  last  sigh  in  a  brief  writing  which  was  cer- 
tainly contemporary  with  Nehemiah.  The  author  is 
mysterious  as  to  his  personality,  and  has  not  been 
willing  to  tell  us  his  name.  The  abuses  he  attacks 
are  those  that  were  attacked  by  Nehemiah,  —  negli- 
gence as  to  the  payment  of  tithes  and  other  legal 
dues  ;  mixed  marriages  between  Jews  and  heathen 
women  ;  the  prevalence  of  divorce,  especially  when 
a  Jewish  wife  was  repudiated  that  her  husband  might 
marry  a  Gentile  ;  the  offering  in  sacrifice  by  the 
priests  of  beasts  lame  and  sick,  that  they  would  not 
have  presumed  to  offer  to  the  pekah.  Eschatological 
and  messianic  ideas  occupy  this  late  comer  among 
the  Prophets  as  much  as  they  had  done  the  minds  of 
his  forerunners.  The  day  of  lahveh  draws  near.  It 
will  be  a  day  of  fire,  of  extermination.  God  will 
prepare  his  people  for  it  by  sending  Elijah  from  the 
dead  to  turn  the  hearts  of  the  estranged  Israelites 
to  one  another.  This  wondrous  messenger  lahveh 
will  call  maleaki,  —  that  is,  "  my  messenger  ;  "  and 


124         HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

the  whole  prophecy  now  bears  that  name,  It  was 
first  called  "  The  Prophecy  of  maleaJci^'"  and  the  word 
was  afterwards  turned  into  "  Malachi/'  a  proper 
name.* 

The  melancholy  position  in  which  the  Israelite 
with  a  divided  conscience  was  now  placed,  is  keenly 
felt  by  the  anonymous  writer  Pious  men  have  lost 
patience,  and  are  saying,  — 

Let  us  do  evil  :  every  one  that  doeth  evil  is  good  in  the 
sight  of  lahveh.f  Ye  have  said  it  is  vain  to  serve  lah- 
veh,  and  what  profit  have  we  that  we  have  kept  his  ordi- 
nances and  that  we  have  walked  mournfully  before  our 
God  ?  .  .  .  Henceforward  we  will  say,  Happy  are  the  Ze- 
dim!  They  that  work  wickedness  prosper.  They  defy 
God,  and  are  always  delivered. 

The  reply  of  lahveh  comes  at  once.  A  book  of 
remembrance  \  is  opened  containing  the  names  of  all 
those  who  serve  the  Lord  :  — 

And  they  shall  be  mine,  saith  lahveh-Sabaoth,  in  the 
day  that  I  shall  make  even  my  peculiar  treasure.  And 
I  will  spare  them  even  as  a  man  spareth  his  own  son  that 
serveth  him.  Then  shall  ye  return  and  discern  between 
tlie  righteous  and  the  wicked,  between  him  that  serveth 
God  and  him  that  serveth  him  not.  For  behold  the  day 
Cometh  !  it  burnetii  as  a  furnace,  and  all  the  zedim  and  all 
that  work  wickedness  shall  be  stubble  ;  and  the  day  that 
Cometh  shall  burn  them  up,  saith  lahveh-Sabaoth,  that  it 
shall  leave  them  neither  root  nor  branch.  But  unto  you 
that  fear  my  name  shall  the  sun  of  righteousness  arise  with 
healing  in  his  wings,  and  ye  shall  go  forth  and  gambol  as 

*  Malachi  i.  1  ;  iii.  1  ;  iv.  1-6. 

t  Malachi  ii.  17.  Î  Malachi  iii.  16. 


THE  LAST  GLEAMS   OF  PROPHECY.  \2.s 

calves  of  the  stall.  And  ye  shall  tread  down  the  wicked  ; 
for  they  shall  be  ashes  before  the  soles  of  your  feet  in 
the  day  that  1  do  this,  saith  lahveh-Sabaoth.  Remem- 
ber ye  the  law  of  Moses  which  I  commanded  unto  him  in 
Horeb  for  all  Israel,  even  statutes  and  judgments.  Behold, 
1  will  send  you  Elijah  the  prophet  before  the  great  and  ter- 
rible day  of  lahveh  comes.  And  he  shall  turn  the  hearts 
of  the  fathers  to  the  children  and  the  hearts  of  children 
to  their  fathers,  lest  1  come  and  smite  the  land  with 
her  em  (a  curse). 

One  may  see  here  the  transformation  taking  place 
in  old  ideas.  lahveh  keeps  a  book  of  remembrance 
for  the  names  of  the  faithful  who  have  not  seen  the 
day  of  his  judgments  on  the  earth.  If  the  Anony- 
mous Prophet  had  carried  his  reasoning  a  little  fur- 
ther, he  might  have  created  a  place  of  waiting  for 
those  who  seemed  victims  of  the  delay  of  the  Lord's 
justice,  until  their  day  of  final  triumph  should  arrive. 
This  conclusion  was  not  reached  till  the  time  of  the 
Maccabees  ;  but  already  in  the  days  of  Nehemiah  it 
was  admitted  that  one  of  the  old  Prophets  might 
rise  from  the  dead,  or  that  a  livino^  man  mio^ht  be  the 
fit  representative  of  the  ancient  Prophet.  We  be- 
gin to  see  the  dawn  of  a  new  eschatology,  in  which 
resurrection  shall  be  considered  a  thing  possible,  and 
in  which  the  ancient  Prophets  are  considered  as  re- 
appearing to  play  a  new  part  at  the  end  of  time. 
This  was  in  consequence  of  the  general  decline  that 
had  taken  place  in  the  Prophets.  Men  ceased  to  ex- 
pect great  ones  like  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  or  even  Zech- 
ariah.     Therefore  they  looked  forward  to  the  resus- 


126         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

citation  of  one  of  God's  great  men  of  former  times. 
Elijah;  a  giant  among  Prophets,  —  great  in  his  his- 
tory, great  in  his  vision  upon  Horeb,  which  resembled 
that  of  Moses,  and  great  by  his  being  taken  up  into 
Heaven,  —  seemed  marked  out  to  be  the  precursor  of 
"  the  great  and  terrible  day."  "^  This  will  become 
a  leading  factor  in  the  Apocalypse  of  Christians. 
John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus  will  owe  to  the  Anony- 
mous Prophet  of  the  days  of  Nehemiah  one  of  the 
most  important  mythical  features  connected  with 
their  history. 

Sheol  now  loosens  its  clutch  upon  its  prey  more 
easily  than  it  did  formerly.  The  idea  that  a  man 
may  descend  into  Sheol  and  come  forth  alive  again 
we  see  in  the  story  of  Jonah,  where  strangely  enough 
a  man  is  represented  as  singing  a  psalm  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  sea.  Formerly  the  idea  was  that  there 
was  no  prayer  in  Sheol  ;  here,  on  the  contrary,  God 
accepts  prayers  addressed  to  him  from  a  fish's  belly. t 
The  need  of  reward  beyond  the  grave  seemed  to 
become  evident,  since  the  time  of  waiting  for  the 
fulfilment  of  earthly  promises  was  prolonged.  But 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  were  yet  to  pass  be- 
fore these  ideas  could  be  formulated.  Martyrs  were 
needed.  A  martyr  clearly  receives  no  reward  upon 
earth  :  a  reward  must  be  given  him  in  another 
world. 

Maleciki  having  become  the  name  of  a  prophet  w^as 
added    to  the  collection  of  prophetic  writings  that 

*  See  Ecclesiasticus  xlviii.  10.  f  Jonah  ii.  3,  &c. 


THE  LAST  GLEAMS  OF  PROPHECY.  127 

had  already  been  gathered  into  one  book.*^  After 
Malachi  nothing  more  was  added.  The  new  growth 
of  prophecy  which  took  place,  and  which  took  an 
apocalyptic  form  after  the  days  of  the  Maccabees, 
remained  in  the  Keticbim,  or  Hagiographie  writings. 
The  scroll  of  prophecy  was  tied  up,  —  in  a  sense, 
bound  ;  it  was  never  untied  again  even  to  admit 
writings  held  to  be  of  the  highest  inspiration.  These 
could  not  pass  the  barrier.  They  were  only  admit- 
ted, as  something  apart,  into  the  last  pages  of  the 
sacred  volume.!  The  remarkable  words  about  Elijah 
struck  the  Hebrew  imagination,  and  it  was  the  cus- 
tom to  write  them  in  capital  letters  at  the  end  of 
the  prophetic  scroll.^  It  was  the  consecration  of 
the  messianic  idea,  or  rather  one  more  step  in  its 
materialisation. 

The  volume  of  prophecy  thus  closed  was  eagerly 
read  by  those  whose  hopes  were  fixed  upon  the  fu- 
ture. It  also  served  as  a  sort  of  sibylline  book,  — 
passages  of  which  were  used  as  oracles,  foretelling 
what  would  take  place  in  the  future.  The  writings 
of  Jeremiah  were  especially  used  for  this  purpose. 
What  was  missed  was  the  spirit  of  those  awful  early 
tribunes,  full  of  such  passionate  indignation  against 
evil,  and  such  an  ardent  love  of  justice.  The  great 
Anonymous  Prophet  of  536  b.  c,  could  he  have  come 
back  to  life  a  hundred  years  after  his  death,  would 

*  See  p.  97. 

f  The  Greek  translation  places  them  there. 

%  This  is  still  the  custom  in  printed  Hebrew  Bibles. 


I2S         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

surely  have  wept  over  the  enfeebled  generation 
which  had  substituted  observances  of  the  ceremonial 
law  for  the  things  that  concerned  pure  religion. 
The  two  great  events  that  the  great  Prophets  hoped 
for  —  namely,  that  Judah  would  be  reconciled  with 
Israel,  that  reconciliation  being  effected  by  the  influ- 
ence of  Jerusalem,  and  the  recognition  of  Jerusalem 
as  the  religious  centre  of  the  whole  earth  —  were 
ideas  of  the  past.  Zerubbabel  and  Nehemiah  had 
formally  excluded  Samaria  from  participation  in 
the  work  of  rebuilding  the  Temple  :  the  Samaritan 
schism  was  complete.  As  for  the  Gentile  world,  had 
it  come  up  to  worship  at  the  Temple  of  Nehemiah 
and  Ezra,  how  ignominiously  it  w^ould  have  been 
repulsed  !  Put  out  the  infidels  !  Thrust  forth  the 
uncircumcised  !  No  entrance  for  the  unclean  !  The 
pious  Jew  is  a  nibdal,  —  one  separate.  He  will  have 
nothing  to  do  with  those  who  are  not  clean.  Nib- 
clalism  gives  pride  its  greatest  satisfaction  ;  but  it 
stands  in  the  way  of  making  great  conversions,  and 
of  uttering  large  thoughts  to  men. 

No  man  knows  of  what  he  may  be  laying  the 
foundation.  Jesus  founded  as  he  hoped  a  spiritual 
religion,  —  and,  behold  !  the  Christian  religion  has 
been  as  full  of  superstitions  as  any  other  :  the  Jes- 
uits could  call  themselves  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
Saint  Francis  of  Assisi  thought  he  could  found  a 
Christian  system  that  should  be  living  and  perma- 
nent, and  yet  from  him  came  those  miserable  com- 
munities  of    friars    which   fell    entirely    under    the 


THE  LAST  GLEAMS  OF  PROPHECY.  129 

control  of  the  official  Church,  and  were  without  any 
moral  value.  How  the  Prophets  of  the  grand  era  of 
Jewish  prophecy  would  have  protested,  could  they 
have  seen  their  pure  and  stern  ideas  resulting  in 
mere  ritualism,  in  disputes  about  sacrifices  and  the 
law  concerning  clean  and  unclean!  —  they,  who  had 
maintained  that  evil  is  alone  impure,  and  that  wrong 
cannot  be  atoned  for  by  sacrifice  !  Things  in  this 
world  often  meet  with  such  reactions  ;  and  yet  all 
earnest  and  all  unselfish  effort  leaves  its  deposit. 
The  spirit  of  the  old  Prophets  was  to  return  ;  while 
the  worship  so  carefully  studied  in  its  least  details, 
and  represented  by  such  an  immense  staff  of  men 
employed  in  its  service,  was  to  die  out  forever. 


VOL.  IV.  —  9 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    SAMARITANS. 

For  a  long  time  after  the  return  of  the  exiles  from 
Babylon,  the  worshippers  of  Jehovah  living  on  the 
lands  of  ancient  Ephraim  made  frequent  attempts 
in  good  faith  to  form  a  real  religious  union  v^ith 
Jerusalem.  Samaria,  the  ancient  city  of  Shemer, 
continued  to  be  the  centre  of  what  remained  (though 
ill  cared  for)  of  the  authentic  relics  of  the  old  king- 
dom of  Israel.  The  political  and  social  position 
of  those  Israelites  who  had  been  spared  by  the 
Assyrians  was  better  than  that  of  the  poor  colonists 
in  Judea  ;  but  their  sacerdotal  organisation,  which 
had  not  come  under  the  influence  of  Jeremiah,  was 
very  imperfect.  They  had  only  vague  ideas  of  the 
Torah  ;  the  writings  of  the  Prophets  were  unknown 
to  them  ;  they  do  not  seem  to  have  possessed  any 
sacred  writings.  Thanks  to  the  friendly  relations 
that  existed  between  leading  men  in  Samaria,  Elia- 
shib  the  high-priest  and  other  priestly  families,  this 
want  was  supplied.  The  Torah,  as  it  had  received 
its  last  touches,  was  passed  on  from  Jerusalem  to 
Samaria.  The  Samaritan  scribes  copied  it,  making 
some  abridgments.     Their  writing  was  of   the   an- 


THE  SAMARITANS,  131 

cient,  bold,  archaic  character,  whilst  writing  at 
Jerusalem  had  become  cursive,  a  running  hand, 
which  frequently  led  to  confusion.  This  was  the 
origin  of  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch,  of  which  several 
ancient  copies  still  remain. 

The  Book  of  Joshua  was  not  in  the  Torah  that 
was  lent  to  the  Samaritans.  But  it  would  appear 
that  they  were  not  satisfied  to  be  without  so  impor- 
tant a  document.  They  received  it  as  a  book  by 
itself,  distinct  from  the  Torah,"^  and  made  numbers 
of' additions  to  it,  bearing  upon  their  own  history 
and  popular  traditions.!  As  to  the  Prophets,  the 
Samaritans  dispensed  with  those  gems  of  Hebrew 
literature.  The  reason  is  evident.  Israel  in  the 
writings  of  the  Prophets  is  always  held  to  be  subor- 
dinate to  Judah  ;  the  reforms  that  they  insisted  on 
made  a  gulf  between  Jerusalem  and  Samaria.  It 
was  natural  that  Samaria  should  not  adopt  writings 
which  tended  to  her  condemnation. 

Samaria  had  no  Temple  of  great  renown.  The 
old  sanctuary  at  Shiloh  and  the  old  altar  at  Bethel 
were  almost  forg-otten.  The  Samaritans  would  have 
liked  to  worship  at  Jerusalem,  recognising  it  as  the 
living  centre  of  a  common  faith  in  lahveh.  All  their 
attempts,  however,  as  we  have  seen,  were  met  by 
haughty  refusal.  The  Jews  considered  them  an 
impure  race,  with  no  mixture  of  Israelitish  blood; 

*  See  p.  99,  note. 

f  Cliromcon  Samaritanum,   ed.  Jugnboll.  Aboulfath,  Ann.  sam.,  pp. 
xxxix  and  21-25.   > 


132         HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

their  worship,  which  had  not  been  reformed  by  the 
Prophets,  was  considered  gross  paganism  at  Jerusa- 
lem."* They  then  resolved  to  build  themselves  a 
Temple  which  might  console  them  for  the  unjust 
contempt  of  the  men  of  Judah. 

Shechem  seemed  better  fitted  for  this  purpose 
than  Samaria.  This  beautiful  spot  between  Mounts 
Ebal  and  Gerizim  was  associated  with  some  of  the 
most  precious  memories  of  the  patriarchal  age.t 
The  tomb  of  Joseph  was  said  to  stand  at  the 
entrance  of  the  valley  ;  \  they  liked  to  remember 
that  Jacob  had  long  led  a  nomadic  life  among  its 
pastures  ;§  in  the  times  of  the  Judges,  Shechem  had 
been  often  a  national  centre  for  the  twelve  tribes.  || 
Mounts  Ebal  and  Gerizim,  which  overlooked  the 
town,  were  holy  places  in  the  Mosaic  legend.  The 
holy  books  that  the  Samaritans  had  borrowed  from 
Jerusalem  seemed  to  give  a  character  of  consecration 
to  those  two  mountains.  In  a  narrative,  taken  it 
would  seem  from  the  Torali  of  Josiah,^  lahveh  had 
ordered  great  stones  to  be  set  up  on  Mount  Ebal 
and  covered  with  plaster,  on  which  the  Law  should 
be  written,  and  also  that  an  altar  of  unliewn  stones 
should  be  built  there  -^^  after  which  a  mighty  solem- 

*  Book  of  the  Kings.     Evidently  partial  and  erroneous, 
t  Genesis  xii.  6,  7;  xxxiii.  20;  Joshua  xxiv.  26. 
X  Joshua  xxiv.  32;  St.  John  iv.  5,  12. 
§  Genesis  xxxiii.,  xxxiv.,  xxxvii. 
II  Joshua  xxiv.  1,  25;  Judges  ix.  ;  1  Kings  xii.  1,  25. 
Tf  Deuteronomy  xxvii. 

**  Deuteronomy  xxvii.   4.     The  Samaritan  Pentateuch  has  D'nj 
instead  of  '73';,%  M^hich  is  manifestly  a  falsification. 


THE  SAMARITANS.  133 

nity  had  taken  place  on  the  spot.  The  representa- 
tives of  the  twelve  tribes,  with  their  lévites,  had 
gone,  some  to  the  summit  of  Mount  Ebal,  some  to 
the  summit  of  Mount  Gerizim.  The  lévites  standing; 
upon  Ebal  had  read  curses  against  those  guilty  of 
certain  crimes,  and  all  the  people  assembled  in 
the  valley  after  every  curse  exclaimed  Amen.  The 
lévites  on  Gerizim  were  then  in  like  manner  to 
proclaim  blessings,  to  which  the  people  were  again 
to  respond  Amen.  Such  was  undoubtedly  the  ori- 
gin of  the  Samaritan  worship  on  those  mountains. 
For  reasons  of  convenience  the  Samaritans  preferred 
Gerizim  to  Ebal,  and  justified  their  preference  by 
a  slight  alteration  in  the  text  of  their  Deuteronomy.* 
A  rivalry  with  Zion  was  thus  created,  which  lasted 
for  centuries.  It  seems  that  the  new  Temple  was 
built  after  the  pattern  of  the  one  in  Jerusalem,  and 
that  its  erection  had  also  the  sanction  of  a  Persian 
king,  Darius  Nothus.t 

The  schism  which  divided  the  Jews  from  the 
Samaritans  was  thus  made  irreparable.  It  was  the 
work  of  Sanballat  and  his  son-in-law  Manasseh,  son 
of  the  high-priest  Jo'iadah,  and  may  be  said  to  have 
been  the  result  of  the  intolerance  of  Nehemiah. 
Manasseh  had  shared  in  the  sacerdotal  functions  of 
his   father   Joïadah  ;  \   but   when   obliged   to   make 

*  See  the  last  note. 

f  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xi.  viii.  2;  2  Maccabees  vi.  2;  St.  John 
iv.  20. 

X  The  Jaddous  of  Josephus  must  surely  be  the  Joiada  of  Nehemiah. 
Manasseh  was  son,  not  brother,  of  the  high-priest. 


134         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

choice  of  giving  up  those  functions  or  of  repudiating 
the  wife  to  whom  he  was  attached,  he  chose  exile. 
Driven  thus  from  Jerusalem,*  he  became  apparently 
the  first  high-priest  on  Gerizim.  Who  knows  if 
it  were  not  he  who  brought  the  Pentateuch  to  the 
Samaritans  ?  Some  writings  tell  us  that  Manasseh 
induced  certain  Hierosolymites,  whom  the  severity 
of  Nehemiah  on  the  subject  of  mixed  marriages  had 
alarmed,  to  emigrate  to  Samaria  from  Jerusalem. 
Sanballat  may  also  have  induced  them  by  promises 
of  land  and  wealth.!  This  movement  of  emigrants 
did  not  cease  apparently  for  several  centuries.  The 
violation  of  the  Sabbath,  the  use  of  forbidden  meats, 
and  the  infringement  of  the  ordinances  of  religion 
entailed  cruel  penalties.  To  avoid  them,  people  fled 
from  Jerusalem  and  became  Samaritans. | 

Every  step  on  the  road  to  puritanism  and  scrupu- 
losity was  thus  a  step  that  led  to  schism.  Reason- 
able men  in  both  sections  of  the  nation  seem  to 
have  understood  each  other,  but  Jewish  fanaticism 
demanded  separation.  This  schism,  fatal  to  Juda- 
ism, was  the  work  of  Jerusalem.  The  history  of 
all  religions  shows  us  that  schisms  have  always 
had  their  origin  in  a  spirit  of  seclusion  among  the 
orthodox. 

Samaritanism,   however,   never   became   anything 

*  Seep.  81.  The  details  of  the  narrative  in  Josephus  (.4n/i7t«7?e5, 
xi.  vii.  and  viii;  cf.  xii.  v.  5;  xiii.  iii.  4)  are  all  made  false  by  his 
erroneous  chronology. 

t  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xi.  viii.  2,  1. 

%  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xi.  viii.  7. 


THE  SAMARITANS.  135 

great  ;  it  was,  so  to  speak,  a  mere  plagiarism  from 
Judaism.  Nothing  sprang  out  of  it.  The  best  thing 
that  happened  to  it  was  that  Jesus  treated  it  with 
kindness.*  He  had  tenderness  in  his  heart  for  the 
excommunicated,  for  heretics,  and  for  men  who  were 
decried.  It  was  this  that  led  him  sometimes  to  con- 
trast these  schismatics  with  the  Pharisees,  priests, 
and  lévites  in  Jerusalem.  He  created  the  type  of 
the  good  Samaritan;  and  it  was  at  the  foot  of 
Mount  Gerizim  that  he  pronounced  the  words: 
"  Woman,  believe  me  !  the  hour  cometh  when  ye 
neither  on  this  mountain  nor  yet  at  Jerusalem  shall 
worship  the  Father  ;  but  the  hour  cometh  when  the 
true  worshippers  shall  worship  the  Father  in  spirit 
and  in  truth." 

*  Vie  de  Jésus,  p.  239,  &c. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

WHAT    THE   JEWS   BORROWED    FROM    PERSIA. 

ANGELOLOGY. 

The  genius  of  Israel  slumbered  at  this  period.  In 
Babylon,  at  the  time  it  was  most  vigorous,  it  had 
shut  itself  out,  as  it  were,  from  all  outside  in- 
fluences ;  and,  besides,  the  religion  of  Chaldea  was 
too  debased,  and  Chaldean  science  too  much  ad- 
vanced, for  the  Jews.  Yet  some  customs,  some 
superstitions,  of  the  people  among  whom  they  dwelt, 
could  not  but  affect  them.  The  influence  of  Persia 
is  the  strongest  that  Judaism  has  ever  known.  It 
lasted  even  after  the  downfall  of  the  Persian  empire. 
Greek  influence,  strong  as  it  might  be,  did  not  hinder 
the  continuance  of  Persian  influence,  until  the  third 
or  even  second  century  before  the  Christian  era.* 

The  symbols  in  Persian  worship  were  both  mag- 
nificent and  attractive.  The  ferouer  —  a  sort  of 
apotheosis,  an  ideal  figure,  a  protestation  against 
reality  t  —  was  like  the  disk  of  Ahuramazda,  \  in 
secret  harmony  with  lahveh.     If  lahveh  had  never 

*  The  Book  of  Daniel  is  full  of  Persian  ideas  and  Persian  words, 
f  J.  Darmesteter,  Ormazd  und  Ahrimnn,  p.  130. 
X  Flandin  et  Coste,  Perse  ancienne,  pi.  clxiv.  ;  Dieulafoy,  U  Acropole 
de  Suse,  p.  440. 


WHAT  THE  JEWS  BORROWED  FROM  PERSIA.     137 

been  truly  set  forth  to  us,  we  might  have  dimly  dis- 
cerned him  under  his  Persian  symbol.  The  coins  on 
which  some  satrap  of  Judea  or  Samaria  had  stamped 
an  image  intended  to  be  a  symbol  of  lahveh  belong 
to  this  period,*  and  we  can  see  in  it  the  influence 
of  Persia.  Jewish  worship  itself  owed  something  to 
Persian  dominant  customs.  The  altar  of  the  tamid, 
or  perpetual  sacrifice  in  the  second  Temple,  closely 
resembled  a  fire-altar,  and  tradition  saw  in  the  fire 
that  never  was  extinguished  a  symbol  of  an  eternal 
flame,  —  a  brother  flame,  as  it  were,  of  the  flames  of 
naphtha  in  the  region  of  Baku.t 

Persia,  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  B.  c,  un- 
derwent religious  revolutions  that  perhaps  were  the 
most  important  in  its  history.  The  Median  magi 
in  the  sixth  century  \  had  great  moral  and  national 
enlightenment,  far  superior  to  their  neighbours. 
Under  the  successors  of  Cyrus  this  enlightenment 
condensed  itself  into  certain  writings,  which  attrib- 
ute all  truth  to  revelations  made  to  one  Zerdusht, 
a  name  the  Greeks  turned  into  Zoroaster.  §  About 
the  time  when  the  records  of  Moses  were  receiving 
their  last  touches  at  the  hands  of  the  Hebrews, 
Persia  was  acquiring  a  cycle  of  religious  myths 
which  were  not  dissimilar.  ||     These  similarities,  and 

*  See  vol.  i.  p.  161,  note.  f  2  Maccabees,  i.  18,  &c. 

X  See  vol.  iii.  p.  382,  note  1. 

§  Plato,  Alcihiades,  i.  17;  Aristotle,  according  to  Diogenes  Laertes, 
proem  No.  2  and  Xo.  6. 

II  Such  Zend  books  as  we  possess  seem  to  have  been  revised  in  the 
times  of  the  Sassanides  [a.  d.  226-642],  and  to  be  a  Talmud  rather 
than  a  Bible. 


138         HISTORY  OF    THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 

others,  formed  a  link  that  drew  together  the  Jews 
and  the  Persians.  It  is  certain  that  their  long  con- 
tact ended  in  reciprocal  borrowings  from  each  other  ; 
but  as  the  religion  of  Zoroaster  flourished  till  long 
after  the  conquest  of  Alexander,  we  must  be  careful 
not  to  attribute  all  these  borrow^ings  to  the  days  of 
the  AchaemenidaB.  Persian  raessianism  no  doubt  ow^es 
much  to  the  messianism  of  the  Jews  ;  but  then  the 
Persian  period  in  the  history  of  Israel  is  precisely 
that  in  which  the  messianic  idea  was  least  flourish- 
ing. However  that  may  be,  the  expectation  of  a 
Messiah,  apocalyptism,  and  the  belief  in  a  reign  of 
a  thousand  years  are  very  like  the  prevailing  ideas 
in  Persia.^  If  there  were  no  contact  between  these 
two  lines  of  development,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
striking  examples  of  similarity  of  ideas  to  be  found 
in  history,  —  where,  indeed,  many  such  may  be 
encountered. 

Persian  manners,  too,  were  far  more  analogous  to 
Jewish  ways  and  customs  than  those  of  Greece, 
Rome,  or  Western  nations.  All  persons  who  play  a 
large  part  in  the  pious  fictions  of  this  period  — 
Nehemiah,  Zerubbabel,t  Daniel,  and  Ezra  up  to  a 
certain  point  —  have  begun  by  holding  offices  at 
court  about  the  king's  person.^     Jewish  narrative- 

*  See  Ong.  du  Christ.,  vol.  iv.  pp.  470-472;  vol.  vi.  p.  149. 

•f  See  the  story  of  Zerubbabel  in  1  Esdras  iii.,  iv.,  and  in  Josephus. 

X  Remember  also  Tobit,  Esther,  Bel  and  the  Dragon  iriitio.  In 
general,  Jewish  chronology  in  the  reigns  of  the  Achsemenidse  is  very 
uncertain.  In  Daniel,  Darius  is  the  son  of  Xerxes,  and  succeeds 
Belshazzar,  and  his  successor  is  Cyrus.     Compare  1  Esdras  in.  1  with 


WHAT  THE  JEWS  BORROWED  FROM  PERSIA.     139 

writers  drew  their  ideal  from  the  same  manners  that 
afterwards  gave  us  stories  of  the  Caliphs  of  Bagdad. 
We  see  in  all  these  histories  men  leading  cheerful, 
quiet,  honest  lives  under  a  kindly  despotism,  some- 
times stupid,  sometimes  paternal,  sometimes  ferocious, 
sometimes  genial.  Life  under  the  sceptre  of  the 
Achsemenidae  seems  to  have  been  very  pleasant  in 
the  East.  Many  peculiarities  of  Jewish  life  were 
derived  from  Persia.  A  great  festival  ordained  to 
take  place  throughout  all  Persia  led  to  a  piece  of 
great  good  fortune  for  the  Jews,  and  gave  rise  to 
a  legend  which  as  it  stands  written  in  their  sacred 
books  seems  to  us  most  repulsive. 

The  Persians  had  a  day  of  rejoicing,  celebrated  at 
the  end  of  the  year  by  feasts,  and  presents  sent 
by  one  friend  to  another.  This  festival  was  called 
fourdi.  The  Jews  adopted  it,  although  it  was  a 
heathen  feast,  and  celebrated  it,  as  did  the  Persians, 
in  the  twelfth  month  by  rejoicings  and  banquets, 
in  which  drunkenness  was  not  uncommon.  They 
called  it  in  Aramean  Pourdai,  and  in  Hebrew  Four- 
dim,  which  became  through  an  error,  easy  paleo- 
graphically  to  explain,  Fourim  or  Pourim.^  This 
feast  was  not  celebrated  in  the  Temple  ;  it  was  not 
at  first  a  religious  festival.  Still,  it  was  desirable 
it  should  have  its  hagada,  and  thereupon  was  con- 

the  document  B  in  the  canonical  Ezra.  In  1  Esdras  iv.  compare 
verses  43  and  57. 

*  The  manuscript  of  Josephus  has  (ppivpaiovç,  instead  of  <povpBiovç. 
Syriac  JîîOS-  The  primitive  form  in  Hebrew  should  have  been 
D"''n3,  which  by  two  errors  not  uncommon  has  become  D"")1£3. 


140         HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

structed  the  story  of  Esther.  Among  the  Jews  every 
feast  was  founded  upon  some  event  in  their  national 
history,  and  had  its  own  scroll,  or  megilla.  They 
contrived  that  Pouriin  should  be  associated  with  a 
great  triumph  of  their  people  and  the  death  of  their 
most  powerful  enemy.  But  as  the  feast  was  not 
religious,  the  name  of  God  was  carefully  omitted  in 
the  history,  and  in  it  no  religious  allusions  are  to 
be  found.^ 

Out  of  this  came  a  narrative  strange,  cruel,  im- 
pious, and  revolting,  which  has  nevertheless  taken 
its  place  among  works  of  religion.  Israel  figures  in 
it  as  a  people  deadly  to  its  foes  by  some  secret  force, 
whose  neighbourhood  is  a  thing  to  fear.  Never  was 
national  egotism  more  openly  avowed.  Meanness, 
love  of  base  employment,  lack  of  moral  sentiment, 
and  hatred  of  the  human  race  are  here  carried  to 
the  extreme.  The  story  gives  us  an  ideal  picture 
of  a  bad  Jew  ;  it  displays  him  at  his  worst,  omit- 
ting his  fine  qualities.  Esther  and  Mordecai  seem 
to  us  horrible.  What  stratagems,  what  lack  of  dig- 
nity, what  cruelty  we  see  in  them  !  The  death  of 
her  enemies  is  not  enough  to  satisfy  this  Fury  ;  she 
demands  that  their  dead  bodies  may  be  exposed, 
among  them  even  those  of  children.!  And  the 
author  of  the  book  expresses  satisfaction.^  Xerxes, 
who  had  given  permission  to  exterminate  the  Jews, 

*  See  especially  Esther  iii.  2,  iv.  3,  14,  16. 

f  Possibly  there  is  here  some  reminiscence  of  Parisatis  and  Statira 
(Esther  ?). 

X  Esther  ix.  5,  17,  18. 


WHAT  THE  JEWS  BORROWED  FROM  PERSIA.     141 

permits  the  Jews  instead  to  massacre  seventy-five 
thousand  of  his  subjects.  It  is  true  that  these 
Persians  must  have  suffered  themselves  to  be  mas- 
sacred by  a  mere  handful  of  men,  which  is  another 
proof  that  these  wretched  tales  are  purely  fictitious. 
The  best  comfort  we  can  derive  from  this  odious 
little  book  is  to  believe  that  nothing  in  it  really 
happened. 

The  Feast  of  Purim,  thus  of  heathen  origin,  soon 
became  by  the  assistance  of  the  book  a  religious 
festival.  In  the  days  of  the  Maccabees  it  was  the 
celebration  of  a  great  national  triumph.^  We  think 
that  the  Book  of  Esther,  such  as  we  have  it  in  He- 
brew, dates  before  this  period.  If  it  had  been  a 
book  intended  to  be  read  at  a  religious  feast,  it  would 
have  contained  more  piety  ;  and  indeed  the  Greek 
translator,  who  wrote  after  the  time  when  the  Feast 
of  Purim  was  established  as  a  religious  festival,  has 
added  prayers  and  pious  reflections  to  the  narrative. 
The  Book  of  Esther  we  conceive  to  have  been  written 
about  the  time  when  the  reigns  of  the  Achsemenidae 
came  to  an  end  ;  and  to  this  time  also  seems  to 
belong  a  fragment  inserted  in  the  Book  of  Ezra 
(iv.  6  to  vi.  13),  which  bears  a  striking  resemblance 
to  the  Book  of  Esther.!  It  forms  part  of  an  imagi- 
nary history  of  the  return  from  captivity  under 
Zerubbabel,  and  is  full  of  apocryphal  documents  in 

*  2  Maccabees  xv.  36. 

t  Both  contain  false  documents,  words,  and  Persian  names  that  are 
very  strange. 


142         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

which  the  chronology  of  the  Kings  of  Persia  is 
strangely  confused.*  Through  the  writings  of  this 
period  one  sees  a  very  high  idea  of  the  Median  kings, 
the  Jewish  author  being  always  proud  and  delighted 
when  their  power  is  exercised,  however  cruelly,  in 
favour  of  his  own  people.!  He  rejoices  on  such 
occasions  to  let  the  world  know  that  a  Persian  mon- 
arch has  hanged  many  of  his  subjects  for  the  sake 
of  the  Jews. 

A  national  spirit  combined  with  religious  fervour 
always  leads  in  the  end  to  some  odious  result.  When 
every  year  the  Jews  read  with  delight  how  Haman 
and  his  sons  were  hanged,  they  are  only  doing  what 
Christians  do  when  they  sing  the  Te  Deum  on  a 
battle-field,  or  hold  religious  services  of  thanksgiving 
over  the  defeat  that  has  befallen  their  enemies. 

The  angel-worship  of  the  Persians  —  their  Am- 
shaspands,  Izeds,  and  Ferouers  —  especially  attracted 
the  Jews.  Their  old  Hebrew  conception  of  angels 
was  simple  in  the  extreme.  Myriads  of  sons  of  God, 
without  individual  names,  surround  the  Almighty, 
as  it  were  the  emanation' of  his  thoughts. :j:     One  is 

*  See  the  story  of  the  pages,  or  body-guards  of  Darius,  in  the  First 
Book  of  Esdras.  The  return  under  Zerubbabel  took  place  in  the  reign 
of  Darius  (1  Esdras  iii.,  iv.).  Note  in  the  same  book  v.  1  and  what 
follows.     In  Daniel  it  is  even  more  so.     See  p.  301. 

f  We  find  the  same  sentiment  in  the  fragment  inserted  in  Ezra. 
Observe  vi.  11. 

X  Michael  Angelo  on  the  ceiling  of  the  Sistine  Chapel  (compart- 
ment of  the  Creation  of  Man)  has  wonderfully  apprehended  this.  A 
sort  of  divine  canopy  encloses  the  Almighty  and  his  happy  cherubim, 
hardly  separated  from  himself,  who  swarm  around  him  and  seem  one 
with  him. 


ANGELOLOGY.  143 

his  envoy,  his  messenger  (the  so-called  maleak  lalweh, 
or  maleak  eloJiim)  ;  another  is  the  adversary,  the  ac- 
cuser, whose  speeches  are  represented  as  sometimes 
exciting  a  feeling  of   amusement  in  the  Almighty. 
He  is  Satan  *  the  critic,  the  fault-finder  in  all  things. 
In  their  close  union  with  the  Almighty,  these  sons 
of  God  see  nothing  but  harmony  in  his  works  ;  all 
are  beautiful  and  good.     They  believe  in  the  truth  -, 
they  are  true  optimists.     But  now  and  then  Satan 
disturbs  their  confidence.     He  delights  in  pointing 
out  what  seem   to  him  defects  in   God's  creation; 
above    all,    he    takes   pleasure   in    depreciating   the 
virtue  of  men  of  piety,  because  in  them  the  Almighty 
delights  more  than  in  any  other  part  of  his  crea- 
tion.     The   Almighty   refutes   him   by  peremptory 
arguments,   and  Satan  finds  himself  always  put  in 
the  wrong. 

In  time  this  simple  conception  of  the  court  of 
heaven  became  more  complicated.  The  parts  as- 
signed to  the  agents  of  God's  will  grew  more  defined. 
There  came  to  be  hierarchies  ;  angels  were  sent  on 
different  errands  ;  and  there  were  sarim^  or  archan- 
gels.|  There  were  even  distinctions  between  the 
sarim.%  There  were  angels  for  all  employments. || 
Everything   abstract   had  its  angel,  its  fcrouer,  its 

Satan,  èiâ^oXog,  Korrj-yopos,  —  the  same  sense, 
t  Daniel  x.  13,  20. 

t  'A.pxàyy€\os,  Jude  9  ;  1  Thess.  iv.  16. 
§  Daniel  x.  13. 

II   See  Targura  of  Jonathan  on  Genesis  xviii.  2.     For  further  details 
see  Orig.  du  Christ.,  index,  article  Anges. 


144         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

universal,  very  like  the  spirits  that  savages  think 
inhabit  anything  composite,  as  a  ship  or  a  house. 
There  was  the  angel  of  the  waters,  the  angel  of  the 
winds.  Every  nation  and,  later,  every  church  had 
its  angel  :  the  angel  of  Persia,  of  Greece,  of  Israel, 
strive  together,  making  a  sort  of  background  to 
history,  and  giving  us  its  explanation.^ 

One  particular  class  of  angels  were  called  Holy 
Ones,  Watchers,!  those  who  never  slept  (in  Greek, 
^^ypriyopoi),  —  a  name  in  which  assuredly  may  be 
discovered  some  connection  with  the  Amshaspands.^ 
These  Holy  Ones,  these  Watchers,  formed  a  sort  of 
council  of  Amshaspands,  in  which  human  affairs 
were  decided. §  They  partook  of  the  divine  nature, 
and  were  apparently  emanations  from  God. 

A  trait  very  characteristic  of  the  change  that  has 
taken  place  in  the  nature  of  these  celestial  beings  is 
that  now  they  begin  to  have  personal  names.  The 
ancient  sons  of  God  were  all  alike  ;  there  was  no 
name  to  distinguish  them.  Satan  the  Accuser  is 
simply  a  son  of  God,  like  the  others.  The  maleak 
lahveh  is  lahveh  himself,  as  it  were  his  alter  ego. 

*  Daniel  x.  Cf.  Septuagint,  Deuteronomy  xxxii  8;  Jonathan 
on  Genesis  xi.  7;  Philo,  opp.  ii.  242. 

I  pT;' in  the  singular  K^'lpl  T|' (Chaldean.  The  corresponding  He- 
brew expression  is  not  known),  Daniel  iv.  10,  11,  20.  This  expres- 
sion, frequently  used  in  the  Book  of  Enoch  even  in  its  oldest  parts  (xcii. 
15),  is  in  this  book  an  imitation  of  Daniel.  In  the  Test,  of  the  12 
patr.,  Reuben  5,  Naphtali  3,  it  comes  from  an  imitation  of  Enoch- 
See  Dillmann,  Henoch,  pp.  104,  105. 

X  Reuss,  Daniel,  p.  245,  note  1. 

§  Daniel  iv.  14.  The  grouping  rty'lpi  Vy^  which  occurs  in  the 
Book  of  Enoch  is  an  imitation  of  Daniel. 


ANGELOLOGY.  145 

After  the  Jews  had  had  relations  with  the  Persians, 
angels  received  names  and  especial  functions.  There 
w^as,  first,  Gabriel,  who  seems  to  have  had  a  certain 
pre-eminence  among  them  \^  Michael,  the  guardian 
angel  of  the  Jewish  people  ;  t  later,  Raphael  :j:  and 
Uriel. §  These  names  were  probably  fanciful,  and 
are  not  to  be  taken  too  seriously.  || 

The  form  of  an  angel  in  this  new  conception 
was  that  of  a  winged  man.  Some  have  doubted 
whether  wings  were  not  assigned  them  later  ;  but 
those  who  were  feroiiers  were  born  with  wings.^ 
They  were  also  men.  The  Book  of  Daniel  is  posi- 
tive on  this  point  ;  Gabriel  calls  himself  "  the  man 
Gabriel."  =^^ 

The  power  attributed  to  these  new  angels  greatly 
surpassed  that  of  the  old.  Among  them  there  were 
some  who  by  intercession  with  God  could  render 
service  to  men.tt  Seven  of  them  stood  before  the 
throne  of  God,  and  these  were  the  Most  Holy  Ones.:j:| 

*  Daniel  viii.  16  ;  ix.  21  ;  and  frequently  in  Targums. 

f  Daniel  x.  and  xii.  ;  Jude9;  Revelations  xii.  7;  Targum  of  Jona- 
than on  Genesis  xxxii.  24;  xxxviii.  25. 

X  In  Tobit.  He  is  also  to  be  found  in  Enoch;  but  that  is  by 
imitation. 

§  In  the  Apocalypse  of  Esdras.  In  Enoch  by  imitation.  The  sys- 
tematic enumeration  of  the  four  angels  together  is  a  sure  sign  that  the 
writing  is  not  older  than  the  Christian  era;  they  are  thus  in  all  the 
first  part  of  Enoch. 

II   See  the  Book  of  Enoch,  first  part. 

^  Daniel  ix.  21  ('"|3;'  notf];;\  a  false  sense).  Cf.  Kevelations,  xiv. 
6;  xix.  17.     Compare  the  sera/?^îm  of  Isaiah. 

**  Daniel  ix.  21  ;  x.  16. 

ft  X'^^  "15<^*3  of  Elihu  in  Job  xxxiii.  23. 

XX  Tobit  xii.  15;  Luke  i.  19. 

VOL.  IV. —  10 


146         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Angels  bore  to  God  the  prayers  of  men  ;  "^  they 
aided  his  chosen  people,  like  the  angel  who  smote 
Sennacherib;  they  fought  beside  the  Maccabees,  they 
spread  terror  into  the  army  of  their  enemies;!  they 
worked  miracles  when  saints  were  in  peril. |  They 
came  at  last  to  be  guardian  angels,  such  as  Chris- 
tianity has  delightedly  developed  them.§ 

As  there  were  good  angels,  so  also  there  were  bad 
angels,  demons  who  poured  out  malign  influences  on 
nature.  II  These  were  the  Persian  dws.  They  in- 
habited ruins,  deserts,  and  deserted  houses.  1]  ^scli- 
ma-Daeva  (Asmodeus)  in  particular  was  adopted  as  a 
demon  of  sensual  desire,  laying  hold  upon  women, 
and  killing  those  who  sought  to  approach  them 
lawfully.*''^  Ideas  of  demoniacal  possession,  so 
rife  in  the  days  of  Jesus,  were  beginning  to  show 
themselves  at  this  early  time.  However,  we  hear 
nothing  of  any  exorcist  previous  to  Jesus. ft  The 
transformation  of  the  ancient  Satan  into  a  dia- 
Wo5,H  the  genius  of  evil,  §§  not  unlike  Ahriman, 

*  Tobit  xii.  12,  &c.  ;  Enoch  xlvii.  2. 

t  2  Maccabees  xv,  23,  24. 

X  Bel  and  the  Dragon,  38;  Daniel  iii.  23,  of.  25  and  28. 

§  Psalna  xci.  11,  12;  Matthew  xviii.  10;  Acts  xii.  7;  Targura  of 
Jonathan  on  Genesis,  xxxiii.  10;  xlviii.  16.  See  Orig.  du  Chvi^^t.,  index, 
article  Anges.    Tobit  is  of  such  uncertain  date  that  it  cannot  be  quoted. 

II  Psalms  xci.  6;  exxi.  6. 

^  Baruch  iv.  35;  Matthew  xii.  43. 

**  Tobit  iii.  8;  vi.  15;  Talra.  of  Jer.,  Gittin,  68  a.  See  Grig,  du 
Chrùit.,  i.  262;  vi.  232. 

tt  Tobit  was  possibly  later  than  Christianity.  See  Grig,  du  Christ., 
vi.  5.54,  &c. 

Xt  ^opliia  Talm.,  ii.  24.  Compare  it  with  the  Gospels.  AidjâoXoç  is  the 
translation  of  jDiyn,  katigor.    Compare  Ecclesiasticus  xxi.  27  (Sarai/âç). 

§§  'O  TTOPTjpôsj  a  Sunday  oraison,  "the  wicked  one,"   true  God  of 


ANGELOLOGY.  147 

was  not  yet  accomplished.  Beliar*  was  probably 
the  name  used  to  designate  the  genius  of  evil  ;  how- 
ever, we  find  no  obvious  example  of  it  before  the 
days  of  Christianity. 

Before  the  age  of  Christianity  there  is  no  certain 
trace  of  the  myth  of  the  fall  of  the  angels.  These 
ideas  hold  so  large  a  place  in  the  writings  of  the 
early  Christians,  especially  in  the  Epistle  (essentially 
Jewish)  of  Saint  Jude,t  that  we  are  led  to  think  that 
the  Jewish  imagination  before  the  coming  of  Jesus 
had  been  driven  to  explain  the  origin  of  evil  by  a 
rebellion  of  the  angels,  who,  cast  out  upon  the  earth, 
had  worked  its  ruin.  These  apocryphal  chimeras 
in  general  were  attributed  to  Enoch  ;  but  that  part 
of  the  Book  of  Enoch  which  relates  to  the  fall  of 
angels^  appears  to  have  been  written  by  a  Chris- 
tian hand.  If  so,  it  was  not  the  document  referred 
to  by  Saint  Jude.  It  is,  no  doubt,  one  of  those  Jew- 
ish myths  of  the  later  period,  most  directly  inspired 
from  Persia.  One  thing  must  be  said,  however, 
that  all  these  beliefs,  common  alike  to  Persians 
and  to  Jews,  are  the  natural  outcome  of  a  more 
primitive  creed.  The  line  of  reasoning  was  the 
same  both  in  Persia  and  in  Palestine;  and  the 
absurd  being  once  admitted  as  a  point  of  departure, 
the  rest  is  perfectly  logical. 

These  roving   fancies   correspond  to  a  period  of 

evil;  or  else  6  e;^<9po$-,  "the  enemy"  always  employed  in  tormenting 
the  righteous. 

*  For  "  Belial.  "  f  Verse  9.     Cf.  2  Peter  ii.  4. 

X  The  first  part. 


148         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

ignorance  and  lack  of  reasoning.  The  distinctive  ad- 
vantages of  Judaism  were  obscured  by  such  foreign 
intrusions,  which  opened  the  way  to  superstitions  of 
an  inferior  order.  People  of  sense  (the  Sadducees) 
would  not  accept  these  exotic  influences;  but  the 
bulk  of  the  nation  was  stronger  than  they.  Chris- 
tianity at  its  birth  was  stained  by  these  beliefs.  We 
may  be  sorry,  but  are  we  sure  it  could  have  been  de- 
veloped without  them  ?  Weakness  is  the  beginning 
of  strength  ;  things  popular  never  attain  their  growth 
without  follies  and  excesses  at  the  beginning. 


CHAPTER  XY. 

THE    DECADENCE    OF   JEWISH   LITERATURE. 

The  debasement  of  literature  followed  that  of  politics 
and  morals.  The  genius  of  Israel  seemed  extinct. 
The  old  Hebrew  language  became  day  by  day  less 
used,  and  was  replaced  by  the  Aramean  as  the 
vulgar  tongue,  —  a  speech  that  was  becoming  the 
common  language  of  the  East.  It  was  the  lan- 
guage commonly  used  in  law  papers  or  in  diplomacy 
under  the  Achaemenidae.*  Everywhere,  except  in 
towns  and  in  Phoenician  colonies,  it  was  gradually 
supplanting  the  old  Semitic  speech,  so  superior  to 
it  in  strength  and  literary  beauty.  At  Jerusalem 
only  the  scribes  still  made  use  of  Hebrew  ;  they 
learned  it  in  their  ancient  documents  as  if  it  had 
been  a  classic.  But  they  by  no  means  always  under- 
stood their  ancient  writings,!  more  especially  the  dif- 
ficult or  disputed  passages,  of  which  they  often  made 
great  nonsense  by  searching  for  mysterious  meanings 
where  everything  was  simple  and  plain.  The  primi- 
tive spelling  of  Hebrew,  without  vowels,  gave  rise 

*  Clermont- Gannean,  Revue  arche'ol,  Aug.  1878,  pp.  93-107. 
t  Witness  the  author  of  Chronicles. 


ISO         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

to  many  doubtful  renderings,  and  they  therefore  at 
this  time  began  to  use  quiescents  (maires  kctiones)  to 
guide  the  reader  ;  but  they  often  put  them  wrong. 
The  copyists,  not  perfectly  understanding  what  they 
copied,  and  at  the  same  time  endeavouring  not  to 
write  nonsense,  committed  faults  innumerable.  Thus 
the  exegesis  of  Hebrew  books  becomes  very  deplor- 
able, especially  in  their  poetic  parts.  The  messianic 
beliefs,  which  grew  up  in  darkness,  found  plenty  to 
feed  upon.  As  these  ideas  increased,  every  passage 
that  was  not  clear  was  supposed  to  refer  to  the  Mes- 
siah. An  elaboration  of  all  human  hopes,  made  up 
of  a  confused  collection  of  scraps  of  passages  and  of 
phrases  altered  by  copyists,  became  almost  unintel- 
ligible."^  When  hope  is  desired,  human  nature  can 
always  find  cause  to  hope  for  what  it  wishes  ;  and 
what  it  wishes  for  seems  always  right. 

The  ancient  historical  records  not  included  in  the 
Torah  were  little  read.  The  Books  of  Judges,  Sam- 
uel, and  Kings  existed  as  we  have  them  now,  and 
fuller  annals  than  we  possess  of  the  days  of  the 
kings  of  Judah  and  of  Israel  were  not  yet  lost  ; 
accounts  of  the  Prophets  had  also  considerable  ma- 
terial for  their  development.  A  lévite  (probably  a 
singer  t)  in  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem  undertook, 
towards  the  close  of  the  Persian  rule,  to  write  a  new 
sacred  history  by  the  help  of  historical  records  more 

*  Exegesis  of  the  Gospels,  and  also  in  general  of  the  early 
Christians. 

f  Kuenen,  Hist,  critique,  i.  480. 


THE  DECADENCE   OF  JEWISH  LITERATURE.      151 

compact  than  ours,  which  were  still  at  his  command. 
He  filled  up  vacancies  by  legends  about  the  Pro- 
phets,^ and  completed  his  work  by  documents  in 
his  possession  concerning  Zerubbabel,  Ezra,  and  Ne- 
hemiah.t  All  that  related  to  the  ancient  king-dom 
of  Israel  was  now  considered  schismatic  ;  so  the  his- 
torian confined  himself  to  the  religious  history  of 
Judah.  Very  little  is  said  even  of  Elijah  and  Elisha. 
The  author,  who  is  especially  interested  in  matters 
pertaining  to  public  worship,  insists  that  all  the 
musical  and  liturgical  services  of  the  second  Temple 
had  come  down  from  the  times  of  David  and  of  Sol- 
omon. As  a  general  thing  all  that  belonged  to  the 
second  Temple  he  ascribes  to  the  first.  A  number 
of  the  things  he  says  are  intended  to  form  a  founda- 
tion for  the  pretensions  of  the  lévites.  He  shows  no 
political  or  military  interest  whatever.  Israel  by 
itself  has  never  won  a  single  victory  ;  but  lahveh 
has  sometimes  slain  thousands  of  its  enemies. 

The  author  of  Chronicles  is  extremely  narrow- 
minded  ;  his  intellectual  perceptions  are  very  poor. 
No  writer  is  more  reckless,  more  careless,  in  the  use 
of  his  materials  ;  none  has  sown  more  errors  in  the 
world  than  this  obscure  compiler.  He  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  able  to  read  correctly,  and  the  manu- 
scripts he  had  at  hand   were  very  defective.     One 

*  Reuss,  Chron.  eccL,  p.  27  and  cii'ca ,  Kuenen,  op.  cit.,  p.  467  and 
circa. 

f  The  Books  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  as  we  have  them  should  be 
considered  as  completing  the  two  books  of  Chronicles,  very  incorrectly 
called  "  Paralipomena.  " 


152  HISTORY  OF   THE   PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

can  hardly  imagine  a  poorer  philologist,  a  poorer 
critic,  or  a  man  who  knew  less  of  paleography.^ 
Sometimes  his  errors  are  voluntary  ;  sometimes  he 
makes  changes  of  set  purpose,  to  serve  religious  zeal 
and  national  pride.  Some  narratives  are  his  own 
invention,  and  show  the  fanaticus,  the  inhabitant  of 
the  Temple.  He  is  especially  severe  on  those  who 
interfere  with  the  rights  of  the  lévites. t  One  man 
who  has  invaded  levitical  functions  is  struck  at  once 
with  leprosy.  The  inauguration  of  the  Temple  is 
accompanied  by  a  miracle,  —  the  offerings  are  con- 
sumed by  lightning.  The  site  of  the  Temple  has 
been  pointed  out  by  fire  from  heaven. 

The  credulity  and  exaggeration  of  this  writer  pass 
all  bounds.  The  character  of  David  is  entirely  trans- 
formed. He  is  no  longer  the  wily  chief,  the  bold 
condottiere,  the  skilful  sovereign.  He  is  a  king 
who  plans  great  constructions,  and  who  is  absorbed 
in  the  interests  of  priests,  lévites,  and  singers.  The 
ecclesiastical  colour  given  to  the  episode  of  Joash  is 
due  to  the  writer  of  the  Chronicles.  It  is  lévites  who 
restore  the  heir  of  David  to  his  throne,  and  attest  his 
legitimacy;  the  chant  of  the  lévites  leads  to  victory.^ 
Prophets  can  hardly  be  distinguished  from  the  priests. 
The  ancient  historical  writings  of  the  Jews,  as  we 
have  them  retouched  by  later  writers,  are  the  work 
of   the   school   of   the   Prophets.       Chronicles   is   a 

*  See  Kuenen,  op.  cit.,  i.  457-495. 

t  Ibid.,  p.  488,  &c. 

J  2  Chronicles  xx.  19,  21. 


THE  DECADENCE   OF  JEWISH  LITERATURE.      153 

work  wholly  levitical  ;  its  one  interest  is  worship  ; 
it  is  history  written  by  a  sacristan. 

These  products  of  Israelitish  literature  when  on 
the  wane,  show  complete  literary  exhaustion.  He- 
brew genius  had  uttered  its  last  word  when  Greece 
was  producing  its  masterpieces.  Its  style  is  gone. 
Aramean,  flat  and  involved  in  its  manner  of  expres- 
sion, is  superseding  the  national  language.  Only 
the  literature  of  the  Psalms  now  continues  to  be 
beautiful  :  the  people  have  grown  accustomed  to 
their  rhythm.  Everywhere  may  still  be  heard  the 
charming  resonance  of  ancient  parallelism  ;  still  the 
old  kinnor  (harp)  gives  forth  its  harmonious  sounds. 
Nothing,  indeed,  was  more  easy  than  to  compose  a 
psalm  at  this  period.  The  air  was,  as  it  were,  full 
of  sonorous  rhythm  ;  the  poet  had  only  to  bring  to- 
gether at  will  the  pretty  couplets  that  were  common 
property.  This  is  why  we  find  so  many  repetitions 
in  the  Book  of  Psalms,  which  are  really  reproductions 
of  each  other.  They  seem  like  portions  of  verse  of 
the  same  lyriô  school,  dissevered,  then  reunited. 

Public  worship  became  more  and  more  solemn  and 
pompous.  To  "  praise  the  Lord  "  seemed  man's  first 
duty,  the  great  end  of  his  existence.  A  swarm  of 
little  songs  of  praise  with  music  were  brought  forth 
daily.  The  words  liodou  and  Jiallelou  lah  were  the 
basis  of  these  levitical  compositions,  which  did  not 
cost  their  authors  much  pains.  The  Psalter  came 
forth  like  a  little  Bible,  —  more  beautiful,  more 
touching,  more  harmonious  than  the  Torah,  or  even 


154         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

than  the  writings  of  the  Prophets.  But  in  this  collec- 
tion, which  has  been  like  milk  for  babes  to  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  there  is  complete  lack  of  unity.  These 
psalms  were  sung,  they  were  not  often  written  ;  they 
were  seldom  read,  they  were  never  recited.  It  is  not 
lahveh  who  speaks  ;  it  is  the  voice  of  man,  who  in 
these  touching  elegiac  strains  tells  his  sorrows,  his 
hopes,  his  joys.  In  those  days  only  what  lahveh 
himself  was  reported  to  have  spoken  was  considered 
inspired.  What  we  find  most  charming  and  most 
valuable  in  the  Psalter  seems  to  have  made  its  com- 
pletion a  slow  process,  and  to  have  retarded  its 
admission  into  the  canon  of  Scripture.  The  mighty 
voice  of  lahveh,  which  is  heard  in  the  Prophets  and 
the  Torah,  grew  still  more  emphatic  in  the  Psalms. 
Men  listened  in  the  days  of  which  we  speak  for 
oracles  and  imperious  commands  from  Heaven. 

No  doubt  there  had  been  collections  of  psalms 
made  before  this  period  ;  and  assuredly  the  hundred 
and  fifty  which  we  have  are  not  all  the  psalms  that 
have  been  written.  There  must  have  been  new 
hymns  composed  every  day,  —  all  psalms  must  have 
been  long  sung  before  they  were  reduced  to  writing. 
There  were  no  doubt  many  collections  of  psalms. 
The  basis  of  the  five  books  of  which  our  present 
Psalter  is  composed  had  no  doubt  been  laid  down 
before  this  period,  though  we  cannot  perceive  the 
especial  unity  of  character  that  belongs  to  each  of 
these  five  divisions. 

David  was  considered  the  great  ideal  choir-master 


THE  DECADENCE   OF  JEWISH  LITERATURE.      155 

of  the  worship  of  lahveh.  The  old  leader  of  a  band 
of  brigands  at  Ziklag  was  now  considered  as  a  psalm- 
ist by  profession;  all  the  little  poems  which  owed 
their  origin  to  the  piety  of  the  lévites  were  consid- 
ered his  work.  Hymns,  rites,  and  even  the  inven- 
tion of  musical  instruments  were  attributed  to  him.^ 
With  the  vague  ideas  which  at  that  period  prevailed 
as  to  the  naming  of  books,  the  name  of  David  must 
be  put  at  the  beginning  of  the  Psalter,  so  that  it 
came  to  be  believed  that  the  whole  Psalter  was  his. 
Solomon  was  in  like  manner  made  the  patron  of  all 
books  of  parable  or  wisdom.  Then  came  the  idea 
that  Moses  wrote  the  whole  of  the  Pentateuch.t  The 
separation  of  the  Book  of  Joshua  from  the  other  five 
books  made  such  an  opinion  seem  possible.  Improb- 
ability did  not  affect  a  world  in  which  no  notions  of 
criticism  had  ever  found  a  place.  And,  indeed,  in 
this  respect  Greece  herself  was  not  very  superior  to 
Judea. 

The  true  meaning  of  history  was  lost  ;  no  care 
was  thenceforth  '  taken  to  follow  the  line  of  events. 
Of  these  "  the  prophet-historians  no  longer  presented 
a  continuous  succession."  \  They  changed  their  plan, 
and  made  history  serve  for  edification  or  amusement. 

*  Ezra  iii.  10;  Xehemiah  xii.  24,  36,  44,  45;  1  Chronicles  xvi., 
xxiii-xxvi.  ;  Ecclesiasticus  xlvii.  9-12. 

t  The  first  text  on  this  subject  is  Josephus:  Against  Apion,  i.  8. 
Josephus,  however,  generally  seems  not  to  consider  Moses  an  la-TopiKos 
but  a  vono6€TT]ç.  Antiquities,  iv.  vii.  3.  Cf.  Ecclesiasticus  xlv.  6; 
Deuteronomy  xxxiii.,  xxxiv. 

J  Josephus,  Against  Apion^  i.    8. 


156         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Jewish  romance,  with  its  conventional  literary  ma- 
chinery, its  obligatory  prayers  and  hymns,  or  the 
like,  grew  out  of  the  new  conditions  of  the  Jewish 
world.  The  more  or  less  authentic  autobiographies 
of  Nehemiah  and  Ezra  are  a  species  of  romance  after 
their  kind;  one  part  at  least  is  fictitious.  Zerub- 
babel  had  his  story  written  in  the  same  way."* 
Every  personage  destined  to  play  whether  a  real  or 
a  supposed  part  in  the  narrative  had  been  either 
cup-bearer,  page,  or  body-guard  in  the  court  of 
an  Achasmenid  sovereign.!  Beautiful  prayers  well 
composed,  though  a  little  declamatory,  gave  a  pious 
tinge  to  the  narratives.  The  author  of  Esther  has 
deprived  himself  of  these  ejaculations  and  prayers, 
that  he  might  not  give  a  religious  character  to  his 
story.  The  form  of  personal  memoirs,  even  of  per- 
sonages who  were  not  historical,  came  into  vogue. 
Thus  the  primitive  Book  of  Tobit  took  the  form  of 
a  family  history.  The  story  of  Tobit,  if  one  only 
judged  it  by  its  manners,  might  belong  to  this  period, 
but  the  text  as  we  have  it  is  more  modern.:]:  We 
can  be  certain  at  least  that  the  book  was  not 
known  earlier  than  the  second  century  before  the 
Christian  era. 

The  hagada  of  the  pages  (guards)  of  Darius, §  which 
has  been   attached  to  the  history  of  Zerubbabel,  is 

*  1  Esdras  iii.,  iv  ;  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xi.  iii. 

t  See  pp.  138,  139. 

%  Orif).  (lu  Christ.^  vi.  554,  &c. 

§  1  Esdras  iii.,  iv.     The  original  was  certainly  written  in  Hebrew. 


THE  DECADENCE   OF  JEWISH  LITERATURE.      157 

certainly  pleasing.  Nothing  can  be  better  than  the 
covert  satire  in  the  little  picture  of  the  king's  con- 
cubine sitting  beside  him,  taking  his  crown,  putting 
it  on  her  own  head,  and  giving  him  a  tap  on  the 
cheek,  —  all  of  which  the  king  thinks  charming. *" 
The  praise  of  wine  and  women  is  treated  in  the 
ancient  manner,  somewhat  freely,  and  reminds  us  of 
Proverbs.  The  tone  is  easy,  gay,  and  natural.  It  is 
the  model  of  the  liagadas  we  find  in  the  Talmud 
and  in  the  Midrashim,  which  modern  parable-writers, 
especially  the  Germans,  t  have  often  imitated  with 
skill.  Glaring  impossibilities,  scarcely  perceived  by 
the  writer  ;  a  genial  honhommie,  which  hardly  cares 
even  if  you  laugh  at  him  ;  great  naivete,  which 
scarcely  under  any  disguise  lets  you  understand  that 
he  hardly  expects  you  to  believe  him,  while  he  gives 
you  to  understand  that  older  writings  contain  similar 
fables,  —  all  this,  steeped  in  the  court  atmosphere 
whether  of  a  Persian  king  or  of  a  caliph  of  Bagdad, 
in  the  reign  of  a  foolish  despot,  who  executes  men 
without  rhyme  or  reason,  but  allows  any  one  to 
sing  what  they  please  to  him,  becomes  a  charming 
framework  for  fabulous  histories  by  which  Israel  has 
justified  the  common  saying  that  all  literature  runs 
at  last  into  romance. 

The  Bible  from  about  the  year  400  b.  c.  has  been 
made  up  of  two  parts,  each  closed  at  this  period  ; 
nothing  from  that  time  has  been  added  either  to  the 

*  1  Esdras  iv.  29,  &c. 

f  Krummacher,  for  example. 


158  HISTORY   OF   THE   PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL. 

Torah  or  the  Ncbiim.  A  further  series,  on  the  con- 
trary, remained  still  open,  —  that  of  the  Ketoiihim, 
or  Hagiography.  This  series  contained  Proverbs, 
Job,  the  Song  of  Solomon,  Lamentations,  and  (if 
you  will)  the  Psalms  ;  and  it  subsequently  received 
several  important  additions. 

There  was  far  more  copying  done  at  this  period 
than  formerly  ;  and  with  copying  came  alteration. 
The  writing  was  bad.  The  Aramean  characters, 
which  w^ere  much  more  cursive  *  than  the  Hebrew, 
were  generally  adopted.  A  number  of  letters  got 
confounded  with  each  other  ;  the  (i's  and  the  r's  in 
particular  showed  no  difference.  The  books  of  Ezra, 
Nehemiah,  and  the  Psalms  are  full  of  errors,  and 
only  a  careful  paleographist  can  find  a  key  to  the 
enigmas  they  present  in  almost  every  line. 

In  copying,  the  w^riter  also  interpolated,  —  for 
copyists  were  not  simply  men  who  made  copying 
their  business,  and  mechanically  reproduced  their 
text.  Thus  a  writer  from  whom  we  appear  to  have 
a  psalm,t  thought  good  to  give  us  a  conclusion  to 
the  Book  of  Job,  by  inserting  the  weak  discourse  of 
Elihu,  \  —  a  discourse  which  concludes  nothing.  It 
repeats  the  same  ideas  till  they  are  old  and  frayed. 
They  become  a  poor  rehash  of  former  arguments 
turning  in  a  narrow  circle,  like  figures  in  a  dream, 

*  See  the  Aramean  papyri  of  the  time  of  the  Median  kings.  Corpus 
inscr.  Semit.,  2d  part,  No.  144,  &c. 

f  Psalm  cvii. 

X  Possibly  this  belong?  to  the  Greek  period.  i^DDT  =  perhaps 
pâôv^os. 


THE  DECADENCE   OF  JEWISH  LITERATURE,     159 

striking  over  and  over  again  the  same  spot  in  the 
brain.  Many  books  of  the  Bible  have  been  disfigured 
thus. 

As  for  places  where  glosses  and  various  readings 
have  found  their  way  into  the  text,  they  are,  we 
may  say,  innumerable.  The  variations  are  put  gen- 
erally at  the  bottom  of  a  page,  without  anything 
to  show  to  what  passages  they  refer.  Later  copyists 
have  transcribed  them  in  a  string  one  after  the 
other,  and  have  added  them  in  a  lump  to  the  text. 
Thus  it  happens  that  in  some  psalms  we  find  whole 
passages  composed  of  variations  in  the  readings  of 
other  psalms,  as  if  they  had  gathered  together  all 
the  glosses  at  the  end  of  a  page  of  the  masoretic 
Bible,  and  had  formed  sense  out  of  them  at  hap- 
hazard."^  A  psalm  in  this  way  may  have  become  so 
unrecognisable  that  when  the  collection  was  made  it 
may  have  been  divided  into  two  psalms  ;  and  the 
identity  of  the  separated  parts  might  never  have 
been  discovered  but  for  the  great  modern  advance 

in  paleography.! 

The  predominance  of  Aramean  as  the  language  of 
the  people  early  made  it  necessary  to  translate  the 
Book  of  the  Law  into  Aramean,  when  it  was  read 
in  public.  %  It  seems  that  for  a  long  time  these 
translations  were  oral  ;  the  doctor  of  the  Law  impro- 
vised them  as  he  pleased.     Later,  when  the  system 

*  See  especially  Psalm  xl.  8  ;  Psalm  Ixxiv.  9. 

t  See,  for  example,  Psalms  xiv.  and  liii. 

X  No  conclusion  is  to  be  drawn  from  Nehemiah  viii.  8. 


i6o         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

of  attending  the  synagogue  became  developed,  the 
Chaldean  Targums  *  were  reduced  to  writing  ;  the 
readings  became  regular.  The  Bible  that  the  Jew 
knew  by  heart,  and  repeated  to  himself  in  solemn 
moments,  was  in  Aramean.f 

*  An  erroneous  denomination,   which   came  from  Daniel  ii.    4 
misunderstood. 

t  Aafifià  aa^axôavL 


CHAPTER  XYI. 

THE  DEEP  SLEEP  OF  ISRAEL. 

From  about  the  year  400  to  the  year  200  b.  c.  Israel 
seems  to  have  been  in  a  profound  sleep  ;  and  it  was 
not  without  some  reason  that  in  rabbinical  chronolo- 
gies these  years  are  abridged  to  almost  nothing,  and 
the  days  of  the  Asmonean  kings  appear  to  follow 
close  on  the  times  of  Nehemiah.  Jerusalem  as 
Nehemiah  left  it  was  a  tomb.  There  the  Torah 
ruled  supreme  ;  that  is,  in  other  words,  life  was  in 
the  grip  of  the  most  terrible  instrument  of  torture 
that  has  ever  been  invented.  The  Utopias  (some- 
times cruel)  of  ancient  dreamers  had  been  realised  ; 
theocratic  authority  had  it  now  in  its  power  to 
inflict  death,  confiscation,  and  exile.  Emigration 
took  place  on  a  great  scale.*  The  Jewish  Torah 
only  shows  its  merits  when  it  has  no  secular  arm 
to  do  its  bidding.  The  Roman  rule  was  beneficial, 
inasmuch  as  it  deprived  the  priests  of  the  right 
to  inflict  death.  Abroad,  the  Jewish  law  worked 
better  than  in  Jerusalem,  for  the  cruel  penalties  it 
contained  were  there  null  and  void. 

*  See  p.  136.  Could  priestly  authority  at  this  period  inflict 
death?  Josephus  (Antiquities,  xi.  viii.  7)  seems  to  think  it  could. 
Ezra  vii.  25,  26,  seems  to  imply  it  also. 

VOL.  IV.  —  11 


i62         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Everything  was  growing  narrower,  closer,  smaller- 
In  the  latter  years  of  Nehemiah  we  perceived  a 
strong  opposition  to  his  reforms  which  had  its  centre 
in  families  of  the  house  of  Zadok,  who  were  allied 
with  Tobiah  and  Sanballat.  But  now  there  is  abso- 
lute submission.  The  Torah  has  absorbed  all  intel- 
lectual power  in  Israel.  The  people  cared  to  know 
nothing  more  ;  the  Torah  contained  for  them  all 
science,  all  philosophy.  The  rest  of  the  world  was 
daily  becoming  enlightened  more  and  more  by  the 
marvellous  initiative  of  Greece.  Judaism  turned  its 
back  on  this,  and  would  only  give  to  the  study  of 
profane  truth  (real  truth)  its  few  idle  hours.  That 
prodigious  Psalm  (cxix.)  in  which  the  author,  in 
twenty-two  sections  of  eight  verses  each  (in  all, 
one  hundred  and  seventy-six  verses),  all  devoted  to 
praises  of  the  Law,  sets  forth  its  excellences,  is  a 
complete  compendium  of  the  Jewish  spirit  at  this 
period,  —  of  its  firm  determination  to  see  nothing 
beyond  the  Torah,  to  find  in  it  all  its  hopes  and  all 
its  consolations.  The  punctual  observance  of  the 
Torah  became  a  sort  of  amusement.  From  this  time 
forward  Judaism  was  acting  out  the  Talmud.  The 
Torah  not  only  gave  happiness,  it  gave  pleasure  ;  it 
was  a  game  of  patience  for  poor  decrepit  Israel. 

The  most  dangerous  moment  for  a  nation  is  that 
in  which  it  seems  to  have  realised  its  own  ideal  ;  for 
then  it  begins  to  see  the  vanity  of  the  end  it  has 
pursued  :  it  finds  that  it  has  taken  immense  trouble 
to  attain  a  poor  result.     When  France  had  realised 


THE  DEEP   SLEEP   OF  ISRAEL.  163 

her  revolutionary  programme,  she  discovered  the 
faults  of  the  Revolution.  The  vices  of  an  ideal  plan 
do  not  manifest  themselves  till  it  is  realised.  The 
divers  parts  of  the  Torah  which  contained  things  to 
be  desired  in  a  utopia,  when  put  into  practice  became 
chains  too  heavy  to  be  borne.  The  Torah,  when 
enforced  by  the  governing  power,  was  the  tightest 
garment  into  which  life  was  ever  laced.  Nothing 
could  be  produced  under  such  conditions.  Philos- 
ophy, poetry,  science,  —  all  were  smothered.  Even 
Greek  genius,  had  it  been  so  constrained,  would 
have  perished.  Those  who  could  not  flee  from 
Jerusalem  were  made  brutish,  deceitful,  hypocriti- 
cal, and  wicked.  A  materialistic  religion  to  which 
men  mechanically  conform,  by  obeying  which  a  man 
becomes  a  saint  before  the  eyes  of  all,  is  the  worst 
of  religions.  What  had  become  of  the  dreams  of 
the  great  Prophets  ?  They  died  in  the  moment  of 
victory.  It  is  not  always  best,  even  in  worldly 
things,  to  succeed  too  perfectly. 

The  peace  and  prosperity  which  the  Jews  enjo3'ed 
during  the  reigns  of  the  Persian  kings  were  not 
troubled  until  about  355  b.  c,  under  the  reign  of 
Artaxerxes  III.  (Ochus)."^  Then  a  horrible  scandal 
took  place  in  the  Temple.  The  high-priest,  Johanan 
or  Jonathan,  son  of  Joiada,  killed  his  brother  Joshua, 
who  was  endeavouring  to  supplant  him  in  the  favour 
of  the  Persian  satrap  Bagoses.  Bagoses  sought  to 
avenge  Joshua.     He   entered   the  Temple  with   an 

*  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xi.  vii.  1. 


i64         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

armed  force,  which  of  itself  was  held  a  frightful 
profanation;  he  insisted  that  tribute  must  be  paid 
out  of  the  victims  offered  to  lahveh,  —  and  for  seven 
years  the  condition  of  the  Jews  was  very  evil. 

Meantime  Judea  in  the  fourth  century  was  little 
conscious   of   the    revolutions   taking   place   in   the 
outer  world.      The  Jews  in  general  found  the  rule 
of  the  AchsemenidjB  very  mild.     The  profound  peace 
in  which  they  lived  contributed  greatly  to  the  kind 
of    hypnotic   state    into   which    an    extraordinarily 
active  people  had  fallen  under  the  influence  of  the 
Torah.     The  Torah  had  indeed  found  the  very  soil 
it  needed,  — a  State  whose  provinces  engaged  neither 
in   wars   nor    politics.     The   reigns   of   Darius   and 
Xerxes  especially  shone  as  a  brilliant  epoch  in  which 
the   Jewish   writers   loved    to  place   their    national 
romances.*    The  Achaemenid  monarchs  had  acknowl- 
edged that  they  owed  their  power  to  lahveh.     What 
more  could  be  needed  ?     Jerusalem  might  not  grow 
rapidly,  but  the  Jewish  race  spread  like  oil  among 
all  the  little  villages  of  Judah,  Benjamin,  and  Dan, 
even  into  the  country  of  the  Philistines.     Galilee  was 
possibly  already  included.     The  relations  of  the  Jews 
with  the  court  at  Susa  seem  to  have  been  satisfac- 
tory.    Judea  suffered  little  from  the  faults  that  were 
mining  the  mighty  empire.    Despotism  it  did  not  find 
displeasing.!     Was  not  lahveh  himself  the  mightiest 

*  Esther  i.  1  ;  1  Esdras,  iii.  iv.     The  story  of  the  pages  (or  guards) 
of  Darius.     Bel  and  the  Dragon,  its  beginning. 
t  Cf.  1  Esdras  iv.  3,  &c. 


THE  DEEP  SLEEP   OF  ISRAEL.  165 

of  despots?  The  Jews  in  the  far  East  seem  to 
have  found  Persian  despotism  always  in  their  favour. 
The  story  of  Esther,  if  it  has  any  foundation  in  fact, 
proves  that  under  the  blue  sky  of  Persian  rule  there 
might  be  storms  for  the  chosen  people  ;  but  our 
belief  is  that  this  story  is  a  pure  hagada,  and  con- 
tains nothing  of  truth.* 

The  material  condition  of  Jerusalem  was  mean  and 
sordid  ;  and  that  is  why  a  city  so  full  of  interest  for 
us  was  unknown  to  the  Greeks  at  the  time  of  their 
greatest  wakening.  The  Torah  permitted  no  free 
activity.  There  was  no  civil  element  in  Jerusalem  ; 
nothing  was  to  be  seen  there  but  priests  and  sacred 
ornaments.!  The  work  going  on  at  Jerusalem  was 
done  in  secret  ;  the  best  eyes  in  the  world  without 
could  not  have  seen  it.  Herodotus  and  the  looi:oo:ra- 
phers  knew  nothing  of  \i.\  The  Persian  pekaJis  in 
Jerusalem  were  prefects  of  the  second  or  third  class. 
The  high-priests  Eliashib,  Joiada,  Jonathan,  and  Jad- 
dua  §  succeeded  each  other  in  complete  obscurity, 
and  their  very  names  are  not  quite  certainly  known. 
Commerce  and  manufactures  did  not  even  exist. 
Life  in  the  country  round  about  Jerusalem  was  far 
preferable  to  life  in  the  city.  No  man  was  rich  ex- 
cept the  priests,  or  those  who  had  relations  with  the 
government.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  think  that 
skill  in  the  management  of  money,  to  which  for  the 

*  See  p.  140. 

f  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xi.  viii.  5, 

I  They  also  overlooked  Rome  completely. 

§  Nehemiah  xii.  10,  11,  22,  23. 


i66         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

last  thousand  years  the  Jews  have  been  devoted,  ex- 
isted among  them  from  the  beginning  of  their  his- 
tory. The  object  of  the  Mosaic  Law  was  to  keep 
the  people  in  a  patriarchal  state,  to  hinder  the  for- 
mation of  large  fortunes,  and  to  arrest  the  develop- 
ment of  commerce  and  industry,  after  the  fashion  of 
the  Tyrians.  The  Jews  never  became  rich  till  Chris- 
tians forced  them  to  be  so  by  preventing  their  be- 
coming landowners,  and  by  entrusting  them  with 
monetary  affairs  which  their  own  false  ideas  on  the 
subject  of  usury  rendered  it  improper  for  them  to 
undertake  themselves. 

The  intellectual  condition  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Jerusalem  was  also  on  the  decline.  Nor  was  their 
moral  condition  any  better.  From  this  period  all 
the  faults  with  which  Jews  have  been  reproached 
began  to  show  themselves.  At  once  cringing  and 
scornful,  as  regarded  men  in  power,  are  the  Jews 
of  the  Persian  period.  They  are  susceptible,  easily 
wounded  by  ridicule,  and  cruel  when  they  perceive 
themselves  subjects  of  mockery.*  Overweening  in 
their  self-complacency,  they  respond  by  hatred  to  a 
joke  at  their  expense.  Their  ambition  is  of  a  low 
kind.  They  do  not  aspire"  to  be  satraps,  but  they 
wish  to  stand  w^ell  in  the  satrap's  sight.  Nehemiah 
is  proud  of  having  been  the  king's  cup-bearer;  he 
thinks  it  has  given  him  importance.  The  anavim, 
men  of  peace,  servants  of  the   Church,  not  born  to 

*  Nehemiah  iv.  1-5;  vi.  14.     Compare  the  fierce  massa  of  Ezekiel 
against  those  who  have  made  a  mock  of  Israel. 


THE  DEEP  SLEEP   OF  ISRAEL.  167 

be  soldiers,  are  always  craving  official  employments 
granted  to  them  by  a  military  power.  They  take 
strength  where  they  find  it.  Ah,  poor  human 
nature  ! 

Judea  could  not  possibly  be  a  military  nation,  and 
yet  it  was  military  power  that  she  needed  :  without 
military  strength  no  nation  can  exist.  A  soldier  can- 
not be  made  by  promises  of  a  temporal  reward  \  he 
needs  immortality.  If  we  cannot  offer  him  paradise, 
there  is  glory,  which  is  a  kind  of  immortality.  Napo- 
leon's soldiers  all  knew  that  they  would  probably  re- 
main poor  men  ;  but  each  knew  that  that  for  which 
he  laboured  would  be  eternal,  —  that  he  would  live  in 
the  glory  of  France.  The  Greek  knew  that  his  glory 
would  be  the  thing;  that  would  last  lontrest  in  the 
memory  of  men.  The  bravery  of  the  Gauls  arose 
from  their  admitting  no  difference  between  life  and 
death.  The  Russian  and  the  Turkish  soldiers  be- 
lieve in  a  paradise  that  awaits  them  should  they  fall 
in  battle.  Men  are  ready  to  die  on  such  conditions. 
The  mitnaddeh,  or  volunteer,  in  ancient  Israel,  was  a 
brave  man  after  his  fashion  ;  he  was  no  religious 
bargainer,  doing  well  because  lahveh  would  give 
him  his  reward.  Jewish  pietism  is  too  reflective  ;  it 
might  make  martyrs,  it  could  never  make  an  army. 
The  only  races  which  have  made  great  armies  are 
those  which  believe  in  immortality.  The  Jew  in  the 
day  of  battle  only  thinks  how  he  may  escape.*  He 
offers  his  purse  to  the  soldier  about  to  kill  him  ;  and 


i68         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

when  he  sees  that  this  will  not  serve,  he  sees  no  sense 
in  a  game  where  a  prudent  man  can  make  no  use 
of  all  his  means,  and  decides  never  again  to  expose 
himself  in  battle.* 

One  would  suppose  that  a  nation's  destiny,  shut 
up  so  strictly  in  very  narrow  ideas,  would  have  found 
no  outlet.  The  apparent  end  of  Israel  seemed  to 
coincide  with  the  moment  of  the  greatest  glory  of 
Greece.  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  belonged  to  the  age  of 
Pericles  ;  they  were  contemporary  with  Herodotus, 
^schylus,  Socrates,  and  Hippocrates.  Whilst  Israel 
was  thankfully  accepting  the  yoke  of  the  Persian 
kings,  and  lahveh  was  turning  the  heart  of  the 
great  monarch  in  his  people's  favour  ;  whilst  a  Jew 
was  proud  of  being  cup-bearer,  spy,  and  menial  to  the 
King  of  Persia,  —  Greece  was  resisting  Persia  to  the 
death,  overcoming  Darius,  Xerxes,  and  Artaxerxes, 
and  saving  civilisation.  The  history  of  the  people 
of  Israel,  had  it  been  merely  a  continuation  of  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah,  would  have  been  simply  that  of  a 
rigorous  sect  of  Mahometans,  that  of  a  powerful 
Khouan,  But  besides  the  Torah,  they  had  the  pro- 
phetical books.  They  read  the  Prophets  almost  as 
much  as  they  did  the  Torah.  They  there  learned 
what  made  them  thirst  for  the  future.  Those  dark 
prophecies  of  Isaiah,  the  second  Isaiah,  Zechariah, 
and  Malachi,  though  often  misinterpreted,  stirred 
men's  souls,  and  prevented  them  from  falling  into 
that  sleep  which  is  close  upon  the  borders  of  death. 

*  Ecclesiastes  viii.  8. 


THE  DEEP   SLEEP   OF  ISRAEL.  169 

In  religious  history  a  text  i&  valued,  not  by  what 
an  author  meant  to  say,  but  by  what  the  necessities 
of  his  time  made  him  say.  The  religious  history  of 
mankind  is  made  up  of  contradictions.  Just  now  the 
Torah  triumphs;  but  in  history  we  must  learn  to 
wait.  Four  hundred  years  from  this  time,  Christian- 
ity will  again  accept  the  teaching  of  the  Anonymous 
Prophet  of  536  b.  c.  Jesus  will  atone  for  Ezra,  will 
rekindle  the  flame  of  prophecy  in  Israel,  will  enchant 
mankind  by  the  prospect  he  will  hold  out  to  them 
of  the  kingdom  of  God,  will  lead  captive  Greece 
herself,  and  will  procure  for  her  a  new  life  under 
a  Christian  form. 


BOOK   VIII. 

THE  JEWS    UNDER    GREEK  DOMINION, 


CHAPTER   I. 

ALEXANDER.  —  ALEXANDRIA. 

With  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  sudden  out- 
bursts recorded  in  history,  Greece  (b.  c.  333)  went 
to  war  against  the  entire  East,  and  in  ten  years  had 
won  a  complete  victory.  The  vast  Achsemenian 
empire  passed  away  hke  a  dream.  Greek  armies 
had  penetrated  to  Bactriana  and  to  India.  In 
Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Egypt  were  sown  seeds  of 
Hellenism  which  developed  rapidly.  The  world 
changed  its  axis  of  rotation,  as  it  had  done  two 
hundred  years  before  by  the  victories  of  Cyrus.  For 
once,  the  march  of  mind  followed  the  march  of 
arms.  The  rude  Macedonians,  who  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Alexander  accomplished  a  campaign  to 
be  compared  only  to  those  of  France  under  the 
Revolution  and  the  Empire,  were  assuredly  not  men 
of  letters  nor  great  thinkers.  But  what  matter? 
Ideas  travel  with  men,  often  in  a  course  just  oppo- 
site to  that  in  which  it  was  meant  to  lead  them. 


172         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

A  French  army  thrown  into  a  foreign  country  to 
uphold  an  anti-French  policy,  takes  with  it  the  ideas 
of  France.  In  past  ages  a  Greek  was  everywhere 
a  man  of  enlightenment,  just  as  a  Frenchman  of  our 
own  day  is  everywhere  a  liberal. 

Greece  in  two  hundred  years  had  founded  a  civili- 
sation and  developed  an  intellectual  culture  which 
greatly  surpassed  anything  the  world  had  seen  up  to 
that  period.  This  culture  was  far  from  causing  a 
decline  of  power  in  arms  ;  for  at  the  very  moment 
when  Greece  was  creating  the  framework  of  a  civili- 
sation that  the  whole  world  was  subsequently  to 
accept,  she  was  victoriously  resisting  the  whole 
strength  of  the  Persian  monarchy  and  inflicting  on 
it  defeat  after  defeat.  Her  political  progress  was 
immense.  The  citizen  —  the  free  man  of  a  free 
city  —  made  his  appearance.  At  the  same  time 
morality  established  on  reason,  with  no  aid  from 
the  supernatural,  proclaimed  itself  in  all  its  dignity 
as  a  law  revealed  to  every  man.  The  truth  as  to 
the  gods  and  as  to  Nature  was  almost  discovered. 
Man,  delivered  from  the  foolish  terrors  of  his 
childhood,  was  beginning  calmly  to  contemplate  his 
destiny.  These  were  the  days  of  Euhemerus,  Epi- 
curus, and  Zeno.  Science  —  in  other  words,  true 
philosophy  —  was  born.  Some  glimpses  of  the  world 
had  been  caught  ;  and  although  they  had  no  result, 
the  right  foundation  was  laid.  Copernicus,  Galileo, 
and  Newton  did  but  complete  the  work,  reduce  it  to 
order,  and  trace  its  consequences. 


ALEX ANDER.  —  ALEXANDRIA.  173 

And  as  to  art,  0  heavens  !  what  new  wonders 
now  appeared  !  What  a  world  of  gods  and  god- 
desses, what  a  heavenly  revelation  !  In  this,  more 
than  in  all  else,  Greece  showed  her  power  of  crea- 
tion. She  invented  beauty,  as  she  had  invented 
reason.  The  East  made  statues  before  Greece  did, 
just  as  the  East  sooner  than  Greece  contrived  to  rid 
itself  of  the  continual  intervention  of  gods.  But 
Greece  alone  discovered  the  stability  of  Nature's 
laws  ;  Greece  alone  found  the  secret  of  beauty, 
truth,  order,  and  ideality.  From  that  time  forth 
man  had  only  to  go  to  her  school  :  so  it  was 
with  Eome  ;  so  it  was  with  the  Renaissance  ;  and 
after  every  return  of  barbarism  that  is  what  every 
Renaissance  will  do  to  the  end  of  time. 

The  period  of  which  we  treat  was  indeed  a  critical 
moment  in  the  history  of  mankind.  The  foundation 
was  already  laid  for  science,  philosophy,  ethics,  poli- 
tics, the  military  art,  medicine,  and  law.  There  was 
but  one  thing  lacking  to  this  admirable  work,  —  one 
fatal  leak,  through  which  destruction  was  to  make 
its  way.  Greece  was  weak  as  to  her  religion.  She 
cherished  all  childish  beliefs,  even  such  as  destroyed 
man's  very  manhood,  and,  like  Italy  after  the  Re- 
naissance, she  throve  by  the  gainful  falsehood.  The 
Italy  of  the  Renaissance  saw  religious  imposture 
established,  and  she  safeguarded  the  Pope,  the  chief 
of  all  impostures.  Greece  saw  that  the  gods  of  the 
vvilgar  had  no  existence,  but  she  employed  her  art 
in  the  service  of  a  brilliant  idolatry.     Here   Saint 


174         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Paul  was  right. "^  The  sages  of  old  saw  the  truth, 
but  they  confessed  it  not.  They  were  too  aristo- 
cratic, too  artistic.  Satisfied  to  see  it  themselves, 
they  left  the  religion  of  the  people  in  its  degrada- 
tion. They  cared  little,  it  may  be,  for  questions 
affecting  the  well-being  of  the  people,  or  for  moral- 
ity. They  had  not  enough  of  what  the  prophets 
of  Israel  had  in  excess.  They  had  no  interest  in 
common  with  the  people.  To  the  solicitudes  of  a 
Marcus  Aurelius  or  a  Saint  Louis  they  were  entire 
strangers. 

As  time  went  on,  this  rude  religious  condition  be- 
came unbearable.  It  was  the  rift  into  which  Israel 
forced  its  terrible  wedg:e.  And  when  the  fulness  of 
time  was  come,  good  and  noble  souls,  disgusted  by  the 
farce  of  popular  beliefs,  went  over  to  Christianity, 
—  that  is,  to  Judaism.  But  we  are  as  yet  far  from 
that.  In  the  second  half  of  the  fourth  century  be- 
fore Christ,  Greece  was  a  beacon  light  of  truth. 
Progress  was  all  with  her,  and  nations  that  did  not 
look  to  her  were  those  that  had  no  future. 

What  especially  characterised  the  Greek  was  his 
belief  in  glory,  his  confidence  in  posterity.  The 
life  of  each  individual  is  brief  ;  but  the  memory  of 
man  is  eternal,  and  in  that  memory  he  really  lives. 
The  important  thing  for  a  man  is  what  will  be  said 
of  him  after  he  is  dead  ;  his  present  life  is,  as  it 
were,  subordinate  to  his  life  beyond  the  tomb.  A 
man  is  wise  who  sacrifices  himself  to  his   reputa- 

*  Romans  i.  18-32. 


ALEXANDER.  —  ALEXANDRIA.  175 

tion*  The  Greek  created  an  inestimable  fund,  of 
which  he  was  the  sole  disposer.  The  strange  thing 
is  that  this  great  paradox  proved  true.  By  inventing 
history  t  Greece  invented  the  judgment  of  mankind, 
and  in  this  judgment  the  verdict  of  Greece  was  with- 
out appeal.  Any  man  in  ancient  times  of  whom 
Greece  has  failed  to  speak  is  doomed  to  oblivion,  to 
annihilation.  The  man  whom  Greece  remembered, 
to  him  belongs  glory  that  is  life.  Kings  bid  high, 
in  adulation  and  in  good  offices,  to  have  a  statue  in 
Athens;  and  thus,  in  lack  of  immortality,  which 
the  gods  reserve  to  themselves  alone,  there  was 
something  more  than  a  transient  lustre  waiting  him 
for  whom  everything  is  short-lived.  A  selection 
was  made  among  the  crowded  ranks  of  mankind. 
Life  had  a  motive  ;  there  was  a  reward  in  store  for 
him  whose  aim  had  been  the  good  and  beautiful  :  he 
won  the  esteem  of  Greece  ! 

A  godlike  youth,  who  seemed  to  the  ancients  an 
incarnation  of  Dionysus,  and  of  whose  heroic  per- 
sonality we  moderns  are  reminded  when  we  think  of 
the  triumphant  return  of  General  Bonaparte  at  the 
opening  of  the  campaign  in  Italy,  pushed  his  col- 
umns, light-bearing,  through  the  dense  darkness  of 
barbarism.  His  personal  character  is  not  known  to 
us  from  any  reliable  documents  ;  \  but  what  of  that  ? 
His  deeds  speak  for   him.     Alexander's   campaigns 

*  Dummodo  absolvar  cinis.     (Phaedr.  iii.  9.) 

t  Herodotus,  proœm. 

X  The  tradition  of  Bœotianism  :  Bœotum  in  crasso,  &c.  (Hor. 
Ep.  ii.  i.  244),  comes  from  learned  Greeks  who  were  hostile  to  him. 
The  same  thing  might  have  been  said  of  Napoleon. 


176         HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

are  an  immense  fact  in  the  history  of  civilisation. 
The  sphere  of  Greece  was  enormously  enlarged; 
the  East  was  penetrated  to  its  very  depths.  Did 
Alexander  encourage  marriages  between  his  Macedo- 
nians and  Oriental  women?  We  doubt  it.^  At  all 
events,  that  was  not  the  best  w^ay  of  regenerating 
the  East  ;  children  born  of  marriages  between  Euro- 
peans and  Asiatics  are  generally  Asiatics  themselves. 
Far  more  solid  results  were  attained.  Asia  Minor, 
delivered  from  the  Persian  satraps,  became  an  annex 
to  Greece.  It  was  the  same  with  northern  Syria  ; 
and  though  southern  Syria  kept  longer  its  original 
character,  it  underwent  the  influence  of  a  magnet 
outside  of  itself  which  disturbed  all  its  movements. 
The  valley  of  the  Nile  slept  its  unbroken  sleep  :  it 
went  on  adorning  its  temples  with  bas  reliefs,  and 
sculpturing  its  rocks  ;  but  while  it  did  so  it  was  get- 
ting impregnated  with  Greek  taste.  The  Delta,  at 
all  events,  became  one  of  the  strongest  positions 
occupied  by  Hellenism.  If  the  basin  of  the  Tigris 
and  Euphrates  was  soon  recovered  by  the  Orient, 
we  must  remember  that  the  Arsacidge  were  always 
dominated  by  the  ascendency  of  Greece.  The  title 
pMlhellene  t  was  coveted  by  sovereigns  in  hither  Asia. 
As  far  as  central  Asia  and  India  may  be  seen  un- 
doubted proofs  of  the  influence  of  Greek  art  and 
genius.^ 

*  It  rests  on  very  poor  authority, 

t  Eckel,  part  i.  vol.  iii.  pp.  330,  528,  &c. 

%  Lassen,  Wilson,  Senart,  Weber,  Sylvain,  Levi.  We  must  not, 
however,  exaggerate  the  influence  exercised  by  Greece  over  the  art 
and  literature  of  India. 


ALEXANDER.  —  ALEXANDRIA.  377 

The  most  surprising  result  of  the  Greek  conquest 
is  the  depth  of  the  traces  it  left  behind.  It  was  not 
an  ephemeral  march  through  foreign  countries,  as 
were  too  often  the  campaigns  of  Napoleon.  Its  con- 
sequences were  lasting;  they  may  be  compared  to 
those  of  Roman  conquest.  The  divisions  which  fol- 
lowed the  death  of  Alexander,  unlike  the  majestic 
unity  of  the  Roman  Empire,  hinder  us  from  realising 
the  changes  that  followed  the  Macedonian  expedi- 
tion. To  this  very  day  the  Greek  Church  inherits 
this  supremacy.  It  owes  its  title  to  the  siiccesses  of 
Alexander,  as  the  Latin  Church  owes  hers  to  Roman 
conquerors. 

If  we  may  believe  Josephus,*  Alexander,  after  the 
siege  of  Gaza,  visited  Jerusalem,  and  paid  especial 
honours  to  the  high-priest,  who  showed  him  passages 
in  the  Book  of  Daniel  which  related  to  himself, 
and  offered  sacrifice  in  the  Temple.  This  of  course 
is  mere  romance,  whether  it  be  due  or  not  to  the 
invention  of  Josephus.f  Alexander  most  probably 
did  not  turn  aside  from  his  course,  and  did  not  visit 
Jerusalem.  Josephus  also  gives  us  to  understand  that 
there  were  many  Jews  in  the  army  of  Alexander, 
and  that  they  took  part  in  his  expeditions,  which 
led  to  their  having  in  the  new  cities  that  he  founded 
equal  privileges  with  the  Macedonians,  and  full  lib- 
erty to  practise  their  rites  of  worship,  even  those 

*  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xi.  viii.  3-6.  For  Talmudic  traditions 
(without  value)  see  Derenbourg,  Palestine,  pp.  42-44. 

t  The  mention  of  the  Book  of  Daniel,  at  any  rate,  supposes  the 
narrative  to  have  a  modern  origin. 

VOL.  IV. — 12 


178         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

hardest  to  reconcile  with  the  common  law.  This 
aiso  seems  improbable.  The  Jews  who  may  have 
embraced  camp  life  with  its  loose  ways  of  living 
could  not  have  been  fair  examples  of  the  spirit  of 
their  people.*"  A  man  does  not  risk  his  life  when 
he  values  it  so  highly.  What  Josephus  says  of  Sa- 
maritan reinforcements  seems  more  probable.!  The 
Samaritans  had  military  ways  which  the  Jews  had 
not. 

However  this  may  be,  in  332  Greek  domination  in 
Jerusalem  began.  The  first  governor  of  Syria  was 
Andromachus,  who  was  killed  by  the  Samaritans, 
we  know  not  under  what  circumstances,  and  he  was 
succeeded  by  Memnon.ij:  Nothing,  however,  was 
changed  in  the  internal  life  of  the  city.  The  high- 
priest  Jaddua  appears  to  have  exercised  in  it  almost 
absolute  sway. 

A  new  world  needed  new  cities.  As  Alexander 
passed  the  spot  where  Antioch  was  subsequently 
built,  it  is  said  he  had  a  vision  of  what  a  great 
centre  of  civilisation  a  city  founded  on  so  beautiful 
a  site  would  become.  Opposite  to  the  Isle  of  Pharos 
he  afterwards  laid  the  foundation  of  that  great  city 
of  all  nations  which  was  to  bear  his  name  in  tri- 
umph to  our  day.     Alexandria,  which  is  still  one  of 

*  Ecclesiastes  viii.  8. 

f  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xi.  viii,  4,  6  The  revolt  of  the  Samaritans 
(Quintus  Curtius,  iv.  8;  Eusebius,  Chron.  i.  11;  01.  cxii.)  and  what 
Josephus  says  is  not  very  distinct.  The  Hecataeus  of  the  Jews  is 
spurious. 

X  Quintus  Curtius,  iv.  5,  8. 


ALEXANDER.  —  ALEXANDRIA.  179 

the  world's  great  cities,  was  founded  in  332,  in  the 
interval  between  the  battles  of  Issus  and  Arbela, 
with  a  clear  idea  of  what  it  was  some  day  to  be- 
come. The  spot  was  fixed  where  East  and  West 
were  to  fertilise  each  other  ;  one  of  the  hot-beds  of 
Christian  growth  was  laid  out  in  advance  ;  and 
Greece  herself  in  this  distant  colony  was  to  develop 
a  new  and  original  side  of  her  own  genius. 

The  literary  work  of  Greece  was  accomplished  ; 
her  scientific  work  began.  The  old  Greek  republics 
had  too  little  of  the  spirit  that  loves  to  work  out 
conclusions,  and  were  too  dependent  on  public  opin- 
ion, for  facility  of  scientific  research.  These  little 
democracies  formed  excellent  centres  for  the  creation 
of  first  thoughts,*  in  an  age  when  every  one  phi- 
losophised, speculated,  and  generalised  for  himself 
with  a  child's  fearlessness  and  serenity  ;  but  they 
were  not  fit  to  take  up  studies  in  common  supported 
by  the  State.  United  efforts,  organised  bodies,  were 
there  impracticable.  The  monarchies  that  rose  after 
the  death  of  Alexander  were  much  more  favourable 
for  patient  scientific  elaboration.  Neither  Athens 
nor  any  other  Greek  city  had  ever  had  an  Institute 
or  an  Academy  where  learned  men  could  have  found 
books,  or  laboratories,  or  means  of  subsistence.  The 
Museum  at  Alexandria  offered  them  all  this.  Learned 
men  thenceforward   worked   in   continuity,  worked 

*  We  may  say  the  same  of  the  Italian  republics  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
which  brought  to  second  birth  all  that  Greek  republics  had  brought 
forth  originally. 


i8o         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

to  one  end  and  under  some  control.  Archimedes, 
Eratosthenes,  Apollonius  of  Perga,  Aristarchus  of 
Samos,  Hero  of  Alexandria,  and  Hipparchus  were 
the  Laplaces,  the  Berthollets,  and  the  Gay-Lussacs 
of  their  day.  Important  progress  was  made  in  many 
ways.  Unhappily,  the  fire  kindled  was  a  single 
flame;  it  lacked  intensity.  The  Roman  conquest 
gave  little  impulse  to  scientific  curiosity.  Learned 
bodies  disappeared.  A  public  which  had  an  uncon- 
scious influence  on  learning  ceased  to  exist.  The 
great  centre  of  light  was  extinguished  by  the  grad- 
ual debasement  of  human  intelligence  which  took 
place  during  the  first  centuries  of  our  own  era. 

It  was  not  on  the  lofty  and  cold  heights  of  scien- 
tific truth  that  East  and  West  were  to  embrace  each 
other.  They  united  in  loving  what  was  vague  and 
conjectural.  The  mysticism  which  the  East  every- 
where bears  with  it  formed  a  far  more  favourable 
atmosphere  for  durable  religious  union.  Neither  the 
austere  methods  of  scientific  investigation  nor  the 
masterpieces  of  classic  art  could  establish  a  common 
bond  between  such  different  races.  Two  genuine 
originals  will  not  amalgamate.  Things  too  perfect 
will  not  touch  each  other  ;  or  at  least  if  they  do,  no 
spark  comes  from  their  contact  which  will  set  fire 
to  the  mass.  The  Hebrew  genius  of  Isaiah's  day 
and  the  Greek  genius  of  the  fifth  century  could  never 
have  penetrated  each  other.  But  Greece  in  its  decay, 
and  Hebraism,  also  in  decay,  could  embrace  ;  and  we 
see  in  both  the  singular  results  of  this  interpénétra- 


ALEXANDER.  —  ALEXANDRIA.  i8i 

tion.  The  Jewish  race  having  been  transported  in 
large  numbers  to  Alexandria,  showed  there  its  best 
gifts.  Alexandria  was  free  from  the  limitations  of 
Jerusalem.  Something  was  to  be  born  of  the  new 
union  that  would  be  not  quite  Christianity,  but  at 
least  what  we  may  term  its  preliminaries,  its  first 
attempt.  Christianity  itself  in  the  second  and  third 
centuries  of  our  era  found  in  the  land  of  Egypt  a  soil 
wonderfully  prepared  for  its  growth,  which  furnished 
it  with  some  of  its  most  important  developments. 

The  city  founded  by  Alexander  had  in  this  way  a 
decisive  effect  on  Judaism.     There  were,  besides  Je- 
rusalem,  two   powerful   magnetic    attractions   as  it 
were,  Alexandria  and  Antioch,  which  deeply  influ- 
enced the  Jewish  mind.     Hellenism   and   Hebraism 
stood  face  to  face,  and  the  battle  was  a  sharp  one. 
Alexander  had  not,  like  Cyrus,  a  second  Isaiah  to 
proclaim  his  coming.     It  is  probable  that  if  any  one 
of  Israel's  seers  of  old  had  come  to  life  during  the 
siege  of  Tyre  or  that  of  Gaza,  the  words  that  would 
have  fallen  from  his  lips  would  have  been  w^ords  of 
deep  dread  and  malediction.      That  Olympian  Zeus, 
that  god  of  the  thunderbolt,  borne  everywhere  by 
the  new  dynasty  as  the  symbol  of  its  power,  proved 
a  formidable  rival  to  his  fellow-divinity  lahveh. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    RULE    OF    THE    PTOLEMIES. 

The  twenty  years  of  war  which  succeeded  the  death 
of  Alexander  (323)  weighed  heavily  on  Palestine  as 
on  the  East.  Laomedon,  Ptolemy  the  son  of  Lagus, 
Antigonus,  and  Demetrius,  one  after  the  other  seized 
it  as  their  prey.  The  march  of  Ptolemy  the.  son  of 
Lagus  through  the  land  was  terrible.  In  the  year 
319  this  rude  captain,  already  master  of  Egypt, 
captured  Jerusalem  by  surprise,  profiting  by  the 
scruples  of  the  Jews  which  withheld  them  from 
defending  themselves  upon  the  Sabbath.*  His  ob- 
ject was  to  collect  prisoners  who  should  people 
Alexandria.  He  saw  that  the  Jews  were  espe- 
cially fitted  for  this  kind  of  colonisation;  and  he 
especially  valued  their  faithful  observance  of  an 
oath.  The  Jews  have  always  shown  themselves 
most  excellent  in  a  new  city.  Old  cities  they  do 
not  like,  for  there  they  are  sure  to  encounter  na- 
tional prejudices;  while,  on  the  contrary,  they  seem 
particularly  fitted  for  carrying  out  the  plans  of  a 
new  nation  in  facing  the  unknown. 

*  Joseph  us,  Antiquities,  xii.  i. 


THE  RULE   OF  THE  PTOLEMIES.  183 

Ptolemy  son  of  Lagus  took  with  him  a  great  crowd 
of  captives  from  Jerusalem,  the  mountains  of  Judea, 
and  Samaria.  Some  of  them  he  placed  in  Greek 
settlements  in  Lower  Egypt,  but  the  larger  number 
were  confined  to  Alexandria.  When  they  had  sworn 
allegiance  to  the  Lagidge,  Ptolemy  granted  them,  it 
appears,  a  very  favourable  charter,  which  conferred 
on  them  the  same  rights  in  Alexandria  as  those  of 
the  Macedonians.  However  that  may  be,  the  Jewish 
captives  found  themselves  well  off  in  their  new  abode. 
They  drew  thither  a  large  number  of  their  country- 
men by  boasting  to  them  of  the  advantages  of  the 
region  and  the  liberality  of  Ptolemy.  Some  families 
of  priests  followed  the  current,  although  in  this  new 
state  of  things  there  was  not  much  employment  for 
them.^  Distance  from  Palestine  put  no  stop  to  the- 
dissensions  between  the  Jews  and  the  Samaritans. 
Mount  Zion  and  Mount  Gerizim  continued  even 
beyond   seas  to   be    a   fruitful   source   of  hate   and 

rivalry.! 

The  Jewish  colony  in  Alexandria  soon  became 
very  flourishing.  The  Jews  showed  their  best  quali- 
ties away  from  home,  where  they  were  not  too  much 
the  masters.  They  were  liked  both  for  their  modesty 
and  their  humility. |  They  made  good  traders  and 
good  domestics,  were  very  industrious,  with  much 
liking  for  study.      With  their  facility  in  acquiring 


*  Josephus,  Against  Apion,  i.  7. 

f  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xii.  i.  ;  Against  Apion,  ii.  4. 

X  MerpiÔT-qs.     Josephus,  Antiquities ,  xii.  ii.  2. 


i84         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

languages  they  soon  learned  Greek,  and  applied 
themselves  to  write  it  correctly.  Their  gentle  de- 
meanour made  them  popular  among  rich  Greeks  ; 
those  destined  to  follow  the  employments  assigned 
to  eunuchs  wore  the  rosette  in  their  ears  in  a  man- 
ner that  seemed  to  ask  for  pity.*  The  regularity 
of  their  lives  and  the  strictness  of  their  morals  pro- 
cured them  situations  as  confidential  servants  in  the 
inferior  places  to  which  alone  they  aspired.  They 
made  excellent  clerks.  A  new  city  in  which  great 
activity  reigned  offered  to  these  valuable  qualities 
great  opportunities  for  development.  As  they  had 
no  political  objects  of  their  own,  the  higher  political 
classes  established  on  the  conquest  found  them  price- 
less instruments  in  the  work  of  administration  and 
government.! 

The  battle  of  Ipsus  (301)  at  length  put  an  end  to 
the  anarchy  that  prevailed  in  Asia.  The  two  great 
kingdoms  of  the  Ptolemies  and  the  Seleucidae  were 
consolidated.  Palestine  fell  definitely  to  the  share 
of  Ptolemy  the  son  of  Lagus,  and  remained  in  his 
family  about  one  hundred  years.  It  was  a  pros- 
perous time  for  Judaism,  especially  in  Egypt.  The 
dynasty  of  the  Lagidœ  was  in  general  enlightened 
and  liberal.  The  reign  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus 
especially  (284-247)  was  long  remembered,  and  ro- 
mantic tales  were  associated  with  it.      The  status 

*  Collection  Graf.  (Catalogue,  &c.:  Vienna,  1889),  Egyptian  por- 
traits, especially  of  Jews  and  Syrians, 
t  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xii.  ii.  3. 


THE   RULE    OF   THE  PTOLEMIES,  185 

of  the  captives  broiiglit  by  Ptolemy  the  son  of  Lagus 
seems  to  have  been  ill  defined.  Those  of  servile 
origin  were  numerous,*'  to  whom  Philadelphus  gave 
their  liberty.  Throughout  his  reign  he  seems  to 
have  shown  fayour  to  the  Jews.  Ptolemy  Euergetes 
was  also  held  by  them  in  kindly  remembrance.  It 
was  asserted  that  on  one  of  his  grand  expeditions 
he  had  even  offered  sacrifice  in  the  Temple  at 
Jerusalem.t 

About  the  year  300  Antioch  began  to  offer  almost 
as  many  attractions  as  Alexandria.  It  has  been  as- 
serted that  Seleucus  Nicator,  grateful  for  the  mili- 
tary services  the  Jews  had  rendered  him,  gave  them 
in  all  the  cities  that  he  built  equal  privileges  with 
the  Greeks  and  Macedonians. |  This  may  not  be 
true  ;  but  it  is  certainly  true  that  the  Jews  found 
in  these  new  cities  a  fit  field  for  their  activity,  and 
that  they  flocked  thither  in  crowds.  In  Judea  life 
was  poor  and  hard  ;  agriculture  was  wretchedly  poor, 
and  there  was  no  commerce,  while  the  tribute  was 
very  heavy.  The  emigrants  had  all  the  advantages 
of  Judaism  without  its  inconveniences.  The  Jewish 
colony  at  Antioch  was  never  so  famous  as  that  at 
Alexandria  ;  it  was  Christianity  that  raised  Antioch, 
in  the  first  century  of  our  era,  into  a  world-famous 
city  of  the  first  class. 

The  wars  between  Egypt  and  Syria  had  important 

*  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xii.  ii.  1-3. 
■f  Josephus,  Against  Apion,  ii.  5. 
i  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xii.  iv.  1. 


1 86         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 

consequences  for  the  Jews.  Palestine  was  perpet- 
ually trodden  underfoot  by  the  march  of  contending 
armies  (264,  and  the  years  following).  Greek  mon- 
archies, unlike  the  Roman  conquest,  could  never 
insure  peace  to  the  inhabitants  ;  and  for  that  reason 
probably  their  subjects  showed  little  zeal  in  defend- 
ing them.  On  the  other  hand,  the  far  East  was 
waking  up  again.  In  256  b.  c.  Persia  broke  off  from 
the  Hellenic  world,  and  founded  the  dynasty  of 
the  Arsacidae.  Old  Iran,  however,  was  only  half 
aroused.  It  was  not  till  the  time  of  the  Sassanidae 
[in  the  third  Christian  century]  that  it  recovered  its 
ancient  national  life.  We  are  still  four  hundred 
years  away  from  the  peace  that  Rome  gave  to  the 
world.  Each  year  brought  with  it  new  terrors. 
The  Samaritans,  on  their  part,  never  ceased  their 
enmity  to  Jerusalem.  As  soon  as  fortune  smiled  on 
them,  they  ravaged  Jewish  territory,  made  raids, 
and  carried  off  captives."^  Their  military  organisa- 
tion gave  them  means  of  inflicting  injury  which  the 
more  pacific  Judah  never  had  ;  the  Jews,  however, 
retaliated  by  the  most  bitter  abuse,  —  as  Eastern 
Christians  now  are  always  complaining  of  the  mis- 
deeds of  their  enemies  numerically  feebler,  and 
pouring  upon  them  the  fiercest  invective. t  Never- 
theless, Judaism  flourished  in  the  main.  The  power 
of  the  high-priests  was  absolute  throughout  all 
classes    of     society.:}:      The    high-priests    Onias    L, 

*  Ecclesiasticus  i.  28.  f  Ecclesiasticus  1.  26. 

X  Philo,  Vila  Mosis,  ii.  6. 


THE  RULE   OF  THE  PTOLEMIES.  187 

Simeon  I.,  Eleazar,  Manasseh,  and  Onias  II.  pre- 
sided over  the  nation  with  dignity. 

In  Jerusalem  and  its  immediate  environs  Hellenic 
influence  was  weak,  but  it  was  very  strong  in 
neighbouring  regions,  especially  beyond  the  Jordan. 
There,  especially  at  Gerasa  and  at  Pella,  colonies 
of  Macedonian*'  veterans  had  been  planted,  who 
liked  to  call  places  around  them  by  the  names  they 
had  known  in  their  childhood,  such  as  Pella  and 
Dium.t  The  names  of  Mygdonia  and  Pieria  owed 
their  origin  to  similar  transfers.  The  Orontes  re- 
ceived the  name  of  Axius,  whence  comes  its  present 
name  {^el-Aad).\ 

On  the  other  hand  many  cities,  to  flatter  royalty, 
changed  their  old  names  for  those  of  their  new  con- 
querors :  Alexandrias,  ilntiochs,  Seleucias,  Laodiceas, 
Ptolemaids,  Philadelphias,  and  Phileterias  sprang  up 
in  all  directions.  §  Greek  mythology  took  the  place 
of  local  mythology  at  Apollonia  (Arzuf)  and  at 
Panium.  The  whole  aspect  of  Eastern  geography 
was  changed.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  the 
old  names  were  not  lost.  Acre,  Hamath,  Arzuf, 
Rabbath-Ammon,  Gerasa,  Edessa,  are  called  at  this 
day  by  their  old    Semitic   names,   and  not  by  the 

*  Military  colonies  replaced  the  native  population.  Josephus, 
Antiquities,  xii.  iv.  1. 

t  Eusebius  and  St.  Jerome.  Qyiom.,  at  the  name  of  Pella.  Ste- 
phen of  Byzantium  on  the  word  Tepaara.  Droysen,  Stadtegrundungen 
Alexanders,  1843,  p.  17  (Geschichie,  ii  ;  Anhang,  p.  601);  Ritter,  Erd- 
kunde,  xv.  ii.  p.  1025,  &c.,  1089,  &c. 

X  For  el-Aqsi,  from  the  Syrian  pronunciation  of  the  qoph. 

§  There  were  even  several  transitory  Antigonias. 


i88         HISTORY  OF  THE   PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL.' 

new  titles  given  them  whether  by  fashion,  servility, 
or  adulation.*' 

Galilee,  which  after  the  downfall  of  the  kingdom 
of  Israel  seemed  to  all  appearance  lost  to  Judaism, 
returned  about  the  epoch  of  Greek  domination  to 
the  worship  of  lahveh,  and  that  not  according  to  the 
Samaritan  form,  as  might  have  been  expected,  but 
according  to  the  worship  of  the  Jews  ;  so  that  Jeru- 
salem became  the  religious  capital  of  districts  at- 
some  distance,  and  in  order  to  go  up  to  it  on  pil- 
grimage the  Galilean  Jews  had  to  pass  through  the 
hostile  country  of  the  Samaritans.!  Tyre  and  Da- 
mascus about  the  same  time  became  filled  with  Jews, 
and  almost  rivalled  Antioch  and  Alexandria  in  the 
importance  of  their  "  dispersion." 

The  Jews  of  the  dispersion  in  the  far  East,  who 
had  never  been  willing  to  leave  the  banks  of  the 
Tigris  and  Euphrates,  spread  far  into  Media,  into 
Osrhoene  and  Commagene.  Jerusalem  in  these  dis- 
tant countries  enjoyed  an  extraordinary  prestige. 
The  priestly  families  in  those  regions  never  severed 
their  connection  with  the  sacred  city 4  The  godly 
sent  presents  thither  ;  the  chief  revenues  of  the 
Temple  were  derived  from  this  source.  A  large 
number  of  Eastern  Tahvists  established  themselves 
in  Jerusalem,  and  filled  up  the  void  left  by  the  emi- 
gration to  Antioch  and  Alexandria.     Syriac  was  the 

*  Mission  de  Phenicie,  p.  21,  note  2  ;  p.  790,  note  4.     It  was  the  same 
with  Herodian  and  Roman  names  ;  as  Antipatris  iElia,  &c. 
t   Vie  de  Jésus,  p  242. 
%  Joseph  us,  Against  Apion,  i.  7. 


THE  RULE   OF  THE  PTOLEMIES.  189 

language  spoken  by  these  Eastern  Jews;  and  this 
circumstance  contributed  not  a  little  to  make  Ara- 
mean,  which  they  called  Chaldean.^  the  common 
language  of  the  people. 

*  Pbilo,  Vita  Mosis,  ii.  7.     Cf.  Josephus,  AîUiquities,  xii.  ii.  1. 


CHAPTER  III. 

PKOSEUCH^.  —  SYNAGOGUES. 

The  Jews  of  Alexandria,  no  less  ardent  than  Jews 
in  other  parts  of  the  world,  gave  to  their  extraor- 
dinary inborn  activity  a  different  direction  from  that 
of  the  Jews  in  Judea.  They  concerned  themselves 
little  about  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem.  Worship 
which  could  be  followed  out  only  in  that  one  city 
was  a  secondary  matter  with  them.  A  religion  with- 
out ceremonial,  temple,  or  priests  had  been  an  ideal 
of  which  the  Prophets  caught  occasional  glimpses. 
The  worsliip  established  at  Jerusalem  was  the  great 
obstacle  to  the  realising  of  these  dreams.  Jerusa- 
lem, a  purely  priestly  city,  was  the  place  in  all  the 
world  where  such  visions  were  least  likely  to  be 
realised.  But  the  prohibition  against  offering  sac- 
rifice elsewhere  must  yet  bear  its  proper  fruit.  It 
was  this  prohibition,  in  fact,  that  led  to  a  purer  wor- 
ship. If  Jerusalem  should  be  once  suppressed,  all 
ceremonial  worship  would  become  impracticable  ;  lah- 
vism  would  turn  to  deism  ;  the  last  trace  of  local 
worship  would  disappear. 

All  this  came  speedily  to  pass  with  the  Jews  of  the 
dispersion,  especially  in  Hellenic  countries.     With- 


PROSEUCH^,  — SYNAGOGUES.  191 

out  giving  up  pilgrimages  and  dependence  on  Jeru- 
salem,* the  dispersed  Jews,  especially  those  of  Egypt, 
gave  up  observance  of  the  ritual.  Their  fundamen- 
tal idea  that  lahveh  could  only  have  one  Temple 
was  not  to  be  taken  by  storm.  They,  however, 
made  distinctions.  They  conceived  the  possibility 
of  a  Mosaic  law  without  sacrifices.  They  came  to 
think  that  a  man  could  be  a  good  Jew  without 
having  worshipped  at  Jerusalem. 

What,  then,  sliould  a  pious  Jew  do  in  lack  of  the 
essential  rites  of  worship  prescribed  by  the  Torah  ? 
Ablutions  were  still  possible,  and  were  not  to  be 
dispensed  with.  Men  might  pray  with  the  heart, 
and  give  efficacy  to  their  prayers  by  turning  their 
faces  towards  Jerusalem.  They  might  sing  hymns 
of  praise  to  the  Divinity;  and  above  all  they  might 
meditate  on  those  portions  of  the  Torah  that  bore 
on  questions  of  philosophy  and  politics.  A  religious 
life  shared  in  common  has  always  been  the  impera- 
tive need  of  the  Jewish  people.  In  lack  of  temples 
they  provided  oratories,  very  like  those  founded 
about  this  time  by  the  religious  clubs  and  brother- 
hoods of  the  Greeks  {epavoi,  Siao-oi)  and  the  Roman 
collegia. f  These  were  enclosed  spaces  in  the  open 
air,  orchards  with  tiers  of  seats  as  in  a  little  theatre. 
They  were  not  unlike  the  district  chapels,  or  those 
of  the  lay  brotherhoods,  in  old  Italian  towns.     These 

*  Philo,  Fragm.,  Mangey,  ii,  645,  646;  Josephus,  Against  Apion, 
i.  7. 

t  See  Origines  du  Christianisme ,  ii.  351,  &c. 


192         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

places  of  prayer  were  called  in  Greek  proseucJiœ 
{Trpoo-evxoLL,  TrpoaevKTrjpLa).^  They  were  generally 
situated  on  the  bank  of  a  watercourse  or  near  the 
sea,  for  convenience  of  ablutions.  They  became 
very  dear  to  pious  Jews.  There  they  met  one 
another,  there  they  talked  of  religion,  or  discussed 
the  Law,  and  spoke  of  the  happiness  to  be  derived 
from  its  observance;  and  with  this  was  presently 
joined  a  sort  of  catechetical  instruction.  These  lit- 
tle oratories  were  the  germ  of  the  synagogue,  and 
subsequently  of  the  church.  They  were  to  have 
an  immense  development  in  the  future. 

The  place  of  prayer,  indeed,  like  the  mediaeval 
corporation  chapels, t  soon  became  little  more  than 
a  gathering-place,  or  synagogue.\  Now,  the  syna- 
gogue has  been  the  most  original  and  fruitful  crea- 
tion of  the  Jewish  people.  Religion  comes  to  birth 
and  development  by  human  contact.  The  parish  in 
our  own  day  forms  the  special  religious  tie,  almost 
the  only  tie,  and  the  last  that  will  be  broken.  The 
Jews  in  every  little  town,  and  in  large  cities  the  Jews 
in  every  quarter,  had  their  place  of  meeting,  often 
in  the  proseucha,  but  sometimes  in  a  chamber  fitted 
up  for  that  purpose,  like  a  hall  of  assembly,  with 

*  Philo,  Vita  Mosis^  hi.  27;  In  Place,  6;  Leg.  ad  Ca'mm,  20,  43; 
3  Maccabees  vii.  20;  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xiv.  x.  23;  Vila,  54; 
Acts  xvi.  13;   Juvenal,  iii.  296;   Epiphanius,  Hœr.,  Ixxx.  1. 

f  For  instance,  the  Camhio  of  Perugia. 

X  r^DJDH  fi'D,  a-vvaywyr).  The  orgaTiisation  of  the  synagogues  and 
proseuchaî  is  clearly  related  only  by  Philo,  the  Books  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, and  Josephus.  But  we  perceive  it  in  expressions  in  the  Pirke 
aboth.     Remember  the  expression  n'7njn  ilDJDn.    . 


PROSEUCH^,  — SYNAGOGUES.  .  193 

benches,  a  seat  of  honour  for  the  presiding  officer, 
and  a  pulpit  for  the  orator. 

All  this  was  remarkably  developed  in  time.*     In 
the  third  century  before  Christ,  the  life  of  the  syn- 
agogue was  just  beginning,  t     Its  institution  was  a 
consequence  of  the  dispersion,  and  we  have  seen  that 
during  the  first  years  of  the  Captivity  in  Babylon 
the  house  of  Ezekiel  was,  properly  speaking,  a  syn- 
agogue.:]:    Men  felt  the  need  of  seeing  one  another, 
of  mourning  together,  and  of  discussing  their  com- 
mon interests.     Very  quickly,  indeed,  the  synagogue 
took  on  something  of  a  worldly  air.      Here  they 
received  new-comers,  made  fresh  acquaintances,   or 
asked  tidings  of  the  absent.     The  power  of  associ- 
ation among  Israelites,  which  is  tlieir  strong  point 
to  this  day,  clung  to  this  life  of  fellowship,  full  of 
common  love  and  common  hate,  which,  for  the  very 
reason  that  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  politics,  had 
an  intense  influence  on  social  life  and  on  morality. 
The  new-comer,  who  had  once  appeared  in  the  syn- 
agogue, was   known   and   helped.      The  synagogues 
corresponded  with  one  another,  and  exchanged  letters 
of  recommendation. §      They   formed  a  vast  secret 
society,  a  sort  of  free-masonry,  embracing  all  that 
portion  of  the  world  which   lay  round   the  eastern 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  which  travellers,  ||   dis- 

*  See  Vie  de  Jésus.,  p.  140,  &c. 

t  Perhaps  Psalm  Ixxiv.  8.  %  See  vol.  iii.  p.  346. 

§  'ErrtcrroXal  avarariKaL  of  Saint  Paul  and  Saint  James.    See  Origines 
du  Christianwne,  iii.  228,  &c.,  445. 

If  Yemen  in  our  own  day  has  something  analogous.     Jews  can 

VOL.  IV. — 13 


194 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 


seminators  of  religious  ideas,  found  extremely  use- 
ful. Synagogues  played  a  great  part  in  the  founda- 
tion of  Christianity.  Even  now  in  our  own  day  they 
are  the  strength  of  Judaism, —  a  strength  that  others 
envy,  the  ground  of  many  a  jealous  calumny,  to 
which  there  is  but  one  answer  to  be  made  :  Go, 
and  do  thou  likewise. 

Saturday  was  naturally  the  day  for  meetings  in 
the  synagogue.*  The  day  of  rest  was  a  day  conse- 
crated to  the  wants  of  the  soul  ;  and  as  it  was  agreed 
that  the  Torah  embodied  all  wisdom,  reading  the 
Torah  and  meditation  thereupon  became  a  sort  of 
weekly  obligation.!  Studied  thus  in  common,  the 
Law  became  a  food  of  wondroiTs  efficacy.  Before 
long  the  Prophets  were  read  as  well  as  the  Torah, 
and  with  them  came  interest  and  excitement  greater 
still.  X  The  Torah  was  not  as  yet  divided  into  i^a- 
raslias,  or  sections,  so  arranged  that  it  could  be  read 
through,  either  in  three  years  or  in  one  year.  §  Just 
as  in  the  Middle  Ages  Sundays  were  designated  by 
the  first  words  of  the  introït  at  the  Mass,  sabbaths 
were  distinguished  by  the  parshioth  or  niftarotJi, 
which  were  read.  The  reading  was  done  by  mem- 
bers of  the  synagogue  in  turn,||  for  great  was  the 

travel  there  only  by  going  from  synagogue  to  synagogue  with  letters 
of  recommendation. 

*  Note  aa/S/Sareîoi/.     Josephus,  Antiquities,  xvi.  vi.  2. 

f  Josephus,  Against  Apion,  ii.  17. 

%  We  have  no  proof  of  it  before  the  time  of  Jesus. 

§  Schurer,  ii.  378,  379. 

II  Mishna,  Megilla,  ii.  i.  4;  iv.  1-6;  Zunz,  Die  Gottesdienstlichen 
Vortrage,  p.  3,  &c. 


PROSEUCHjE.  —  SYNAGOGUES.  195 

dread  of  setting  up  in  the  synagogue  official  duties 
or  a  titled  priesthood. 

The  reading  of  the  Law  was  followed  by  a  trans- 
lation of  it  into  the  vulgar  tongue^  —  Aramean  or 
Greek,  as  the  country  might  be.*  Then  a  member 
of  the  congregation  commented  upon  what  had  been 
read.t  This  was  the  origin  of  the  homily  and  ser- 
mon. Jesus  and  the  Christian  religion  proceeded 
from  this  custom 4  Philo  gives  us  masterpieces  of 
this  improvised  exegesis,  always  arbitrary,  always  full 
of  subtilty  ;  but  often  also  stamped  with  great  love 
of  man,  and  lofty  moral  feeling.  The  preacher,  like 
the  reader,  had  no  official  function  ;  each  man  took 
up  his  task  according  to  his  knowledge  or  the  in- 
spiration of  the  moment. §  The  meeting  closed  with 
a  benediction  pronounced  by  some  member  of  the 
assembly,  of  priestly  class  if  any  should  be  present.  || 
And  all  the  people  responded  Amen.  The  Mass,  as 
we  see,  already  had  a  virtual  existence. 

The  school  was  an  outgrowth  of  these  very  exclu- 
sive religious  institutions.  From  early  childhood  a 
boy  was  instructed  in  the  Law  under  the  severest 
discipline.]!  Parents  were  strictly  charged  with  this 
duty,  but  it  is  probable  that  very  early  there  were 

*  Mishna,  Megilla,  iv.  4,  6,  10;  Zunz,  p.  8;  Schurer,  ii.  380,  544. 

t  \if^i:2  or  rwi/li. 

i   Vie  de  Jésus,  pp.  140-144. 

§  Philo,  Quod  omnis  prohus  liber,  12  ;  Fragments  (ed.  Maugey), 
ii.  630. 

II  Berahoth,  v.  4;  Megilla,  iv.  7,  &c. 

^  Ecclesiasticus  ;  Philo,  Legatio,W,  Bl  ;  Josephus,  Antiquities,  \y. 
viii.  12;  Against  Apion,  i.  12,  ii.  25;  Vita,  2;  2  Timothy  iii.  15. 


içô         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

also  schoolmasters  to  take  the  parents'  place. "^  An 
ignorant  person  t  was  despised,  and  held  incapable 
of  being  a  pious  Jew4  Religion  therefore  was,  as 
it  is  in  the  Mussulman  East  of  the  present  day,  a 
complete  civilisation,  enfolding  and  imprisoning  the 
entire  person,  body  and  soul,  and  restricting  his  edu- 
cation in  the  most  absolute  way. 

How  many  great  things  have  owed  their  being  to 
these  virtuous  sectaries,  of  whom  the  world  in  their 
own  day  knew  so  very  little,  and  yet  who  were  busy 
in  creating  the  future  !  The  Sabbath,  as  a  day  of 
spiritual  nourishment,  no  longer  a  day  of  mere  bodily 
repose  ;  the  homily,  or  familiar  preaching,  the  origin 
of  a  pastoral  ministry  ;  the  church,  that  great  school 
for  things  of  the  spirit,  source  of  consolation,  life,  and 
guidance  ;  the  confessional  school,  with  narrow  cul- 
ture no  doubt,  but  strong,  such  as  could  be  passed 
on  to  succeeding  generations,  —  all  owed  their  origin 
to  the  Jewish  diaspora,  when  once  dissevered  from 
the  absorbing  worship  of  Jerusalem.  Hellenic  Jews 
gave  to  their  place  of  meeting  on  the  Sabbath  the 
name  of  synagogue  ;  the  better  word  might  have  been 
the  name  afterwards  adopted  by  Christians,  ecclesia.% 
Thus  was  the  Church  founded  ;  or  perhaps,  we  should 

*  There  is  however  no  trace  of  this  before  the  Talmud. 

t  ]nKn  d;?  =  lôicoTTjç. 

t  1'on  p«n  d;?  ià.    Ahoth,  ii.  5. 

§  The  synagogue  also  was  called  fKKXrjaia.  In  Alexandrine  trans- 
lations the  word  Snp  is  more  often  rendered  by  eV^Xr/o-ia  than  by 
<Tvvay(ùyT}.  See  the  Origines  du  Christianisme,  ii.  86,  iv.  47,  48.  A 
church  in  Arab  lands  in  the  East  is  still  called  a  synagogue. 


PROSEUCH^.  —  SYNAGOGUES.  197 

say,  ratlier  by  founding  the  Church  Judaism  was  pre- 
paring its  own  revolution.  Antiquity  had  nothing 
analogous  to  the  Church,  except  the  collegia,^  and  the 
collegia  never  resulted  in  anything  important.  Re- 
ligious fellowship,  which  has  been  the  source  of  so 
much  moral  improvement  and  happiness,  is  the 
especial  gift  given  by  Judaism  to  the  world. 

To  have  true  religious  fellowship  we  must  have  a 
State  which  leaves  to  individuals  the  most  complete 
liberty  in  everything  but  politics.  The  Roman  Em- 
pire committed  the  fault  of  not  being  sufficiently 
liberal  in  that  direction;  hence  came  those  terrible 
persecutions  of  the  Christians,  and  the  still  more 
cruel  persecutions  carried  on  by  Christianity  when 
it  had  grown  to  be  the  official  faith.  The  kingdom 
of  the  Ptolemies  was  a  model  in  this  particular.! 
Under  the  rule  of  the  Greek  Colony  of  Alexandria, 
as  at  the  present  day  under  the  rule  of  the  English 
at  Calcutta,  the  most  different  religious  bodies  lived 
independent  and  happy.  Old  Egypt  carried  out  its 
mystical  religious  beliefs,  and  no  one  interfered  with 
its  dreams.  A  kind  of  Christianity  seemed  near  its 
birth.  Gnosticism  was  making  ready  for  its  eccen- 
tric evolutions.  At  the  Museum  exact  science  en- 
joyed entire  freedom.  A  State,  both  secular  and 
neutral,  played,  in  the  midst  of  differences  mutually 
hostile,  the  part  of  an  inflexible  impartiality. 

*  Mithraism  alone,  among  the  different  forms  of  worship  in  these 
little  chapels,  seems  to  have  met  with  some  success. 

t  The  narrative  in  3  ^Maccabees  is  a  fable  written  in  imitation  of 
Daniel.     See  below,  p.  210. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  GREEK  TRANSLATION  OF  THE  PENTATEUCH. 

The  common  use  of  the  Hebrew  language  was  very 
soon  lost  by  the  Jewish  community  in  Alexandria. 
Reading  the  Law  in  Hebrew  became  difficult,  and  of 
no  great  service.  Greek  was  the  language  spoken 
in  the  colony,  and  the  Jews  ardently  studied  it.  It 
was  inevitable  that  a  Greek  translation  of  the  Law 
should  be  made,  and  it  seems  that  this  important 
task  was  executed  in  the  second  half  of  the  third 
century  before  Christ.  The  Hebrew  language  was 
not  then,  as  it  became  afterwards,  an  object  of 
superstitious  respect.  The  translators  were  ham- 
pered by  no  scruples  ;  they  were  not  conscious  of 
being  engaged  in  a  rash  work.  The  unity  of  style 
gives  us  the  impression  that  the  whole  translation  of 
the  Pentateuch  was  made  by  a  single  writer,  who 
adhered  invariably  to  certain  rules  that  he  had 
marked  out  for  himself.  The  language  is  the  com- 
mon dialect  spread  by  the  conquests  of  Alexander 
throughout  the  East  ;  a  number  of  little  indications 
would  have  made  us  certain  that  it  was  written  in 
Egypt,  even  if  we  did  not  know  it  independently. 


GREEK  TRANSLATION  OF  THE  PENTATEUCH.      199 

As  we  have  said,*  the  opinion  that  Moses  was  the 
author  of  the  whole  Torah  had  cut  short  the  old  book 
of  the  sacred  history  :  the  tadpole  in  its  last  transfor- 
mation had  lost  its  tail.  Moses  evidently  could  not 
have  written  the  Book  of  Joshua;  so  the  Torah 
ended  after  the  portions  that  had  been  appended  to 
the  arrangement  of  Josiah.  The  translator  gave 
special  names  to  the  five  portions  into  which  the 
Torah  was  divided,  calling  them  Genesis,  Exodus, 
Leviticus,  Numbers,  and  Deuteronomy.  The  whole 
was  called  the  Pentateuch  (the  five  rolls ).t  These 
five  little  volumes  from  that  time  forth  were  what 
was  chiefly  read  in  the  synagogues.  Before  long 
they  were  invested  with  respect  almost  equal  to 
that  bestowed  on  the  original. 

Philology  and  criticism  were  not  a  product  of 
antiquity.  A  translation  that  should  aim  to  render 
the  true  shades  of  an  author's  thought  was  unknown 
to  that  day.  For  this  it  would  have  been  necessary 
thoroughly  to  understand  the  original;  and  such 
understanding  was  not  then  possible.  The  most 
learned  soferwi  were,  in  presence  of  these  ancient 
Hebrew  writings,  like  the  Parsee  vioheds  as  they  sat 
before  their  sacred  books,  when  Anquetil  saw  them 
for  the  first  time.  A  crowd  of  passages,  especially 
in  the  poetic  and  prophetic  books,  were  doubtful,  or 
had  been  altered.     The  translators  had  not  the  great 

*  See  p.  99. 

t  Tevxoç  [tool  or  weapon]  was  taken  by  the  Alexandrian  Jews  as 
the  equivalent  of  nSj*D.  Mosaic  of  Hammara  Lif  {Acad,  des  Inscr., 
conies  rendus,  1883,  pp.  19,  20. 


200         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

resources  that  modern  science  has  since  accumulated. 
They  had  no  knowledge  of  the  comparative  method  ; 
they  had  no  lexicons  and  no  grammars."^  They  were 
satisfied  to  come  pretty  near  the  truth,  and  were 
guided  by  superficial  analogies.  All  translations 
made  in  the  Middle  Ages  or  by  Orientals  are  of  this 
character  ;  they  thought  their  task  accomplished 
when  they  had  made  a  second  text  as  obscure  as  the 
original  ;  they  matched  words  from  their  own  lan- 
guage upon  words  of  the  language  they  were  trans- 
lating, concerning  themselves  very  little  as  to  the 
sense  it  made  :  it  was  the  business  of  the  reader  to 
find  the  meaning  for  himself,  if  there  were  any. 
They  fancied  themselves  very  exact  because  they 
were  perfectly  literal.  They  never  observed  that 
since  the  genius  of  no  two  languages  is  quite  the 
same,  equivalent  words  set  in  the  same  order  give 
a  very  different  sense. t  But  in  truth  it  would  be 
unjust  to  require  of  these  old  interpreters  to  solve 
difficulties  before  which  modern  philology,  with  its 
highly  developed  instruments,  is  powerless.  Literal- 
ness  allowed  them  to  leave  in  the  dark  what  was 
dark  before.  Very  often  they  seem  to  have  thought 
that  the  obscurity  of  a  passage  came  from  some 
hidden  mystery,  which  they  were  bound  to  protect, 
and  so  they  contented  themselves  by  giving  the  bald 
meaning  of  the  Hebrew  words. 

*  The  Alexandrine  translators,  for  example,  had  not  the  least 
notion  of   defective  verhs. 

f  See  some  very  judicious  reflections  of  Sirach  in  Ecclesiasticus, 
prol.  :  ov  -yap  lO'oÔut'a/xet  ... 


GREEK  TRANSLATION  OF  THE  PENTATEUCH.      201 

The  true  translator  ought  always  to  have  his  mind 
free  from  preconceived  ideas  ;  but  that  was  far  from 
being  the  case  with  the  author  or  authors  of  the  Al- 
exandrine Greek  version.  The  spirit  of  their  trans- 
lation is  Messianic  in  a  milder  way  than  that  of  the 
Chaldean  paraphrase,  but  enough  so  to  falsify,  in  a 
number  of  instances,  a  true  view  of  the  original. 
The  Alexandrian  translator  is  above  all  things  an 
apologist  ;  a  champion  of  the  work  of  Moses  at  any 
price.  He  is  already  impregnated  with  the  spirit  of 
the  false  Aristeas,  Philo,  and  Josephus.  He  wanted 
to  present  the  Law  to  the  Greeks  in  a  creditable 
shape  ;  hence  a  whole  crowd  of  petty  modifications 
worked  into  his  interpretation  of  the  text,  out  of 
consideration  for  the  delicate  taste  of  the  Greeks. 
Explanatory  notes  have  been  added,  apparent  obscu- 
rities have  been  softened,  and  the  grand  simplicity 
of  the  ancient  authors  is  spoiled.  The  anthropo- 
morphism of  the  text  is  carefully  suppressed.  God 
is  not  to  be  seen  ;  all  passages  which  speak  of  men 
having  been  permitted  to  see  lahveh  are  retouched 
with  a  timid  hand.*"  "  The  an2i:el  of  lahveh  "  is 
substituted  for  "  lahveh  "  t  in  all  cases  in  which 
the  intervention  of  the  Divinity  might  give  a 
shock.  Many  improbabilities  have  been  softened. 
Dates  and  numbers,  almost  always  faulty,  have 
been  altered.  It  has  been  the  object  to  ward  o:ff 
objections  that  might  be  raised  by  the  Voltaires  of 

*  Compare  it  with  the  Masoretic,  nt<T 
f  History  of  Jacob. 


202         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

the  day.  Certain  precautions  seem  to  have  been 
taken  against  the  quibbles  that  Orientals  are  so 
fond  of,  which  might  have  given  rise  to  ill-natured 
remarks  among  the  v^its  of  Alexandria.* 

But  in  spite  of  all  this  the  Alexandrine  transla- 
tion is  one  of  the  most  important  events  in  history. 
It  was  the  Bible  of  infant  Christianity;  it  was  in 
one  sense  the  Bible  of  mankind,  for  the  Latin  Bible 
proceeded  from  it,  and  Saint  Jerome  himself  only  in 
part  supplied  its  place.  Unquestionably  the  Latin 
Bible,  with  its  rude  Hebraisms,  its  sublime  paradoxes, 
and  its  energetic  vulgarisms,  is  superior  to  this  Greek 
one  of  Alexandria,  which  never  condescends  to  shades 
of  meaning,  in  which  lack  of  precision  is  a  discord, 
which  admits  no  poetic  vagueness  or  mysticism. 
But  although  the  Eastern  Church  has  not  done  w^th 
its  Septuagint  all  that  our  Church  has  done  wdth  its 
Vulgate  ;  though  the  Latin  Bible  holds  the  first  place 
for  its  incomparable  beauty,  —  a  robe  of  honour 
should  be  given  to  the  Greek  Bible,  which  almost 
everywhere  prepared  the  way  for  the  work  of  the 
disciples  of  Jesus.  It  is  to  the  Western  Bible  what 
a  church  on  Mount  Athos  is  to  a  Gothic  cathedral, 
what  a  Venetian  mosaic  is  to  the  w^ork  of  Giotto. 
The  lovely  eyes  of  the  Virgins  of  the  schools  of 
Sienna  and  Umbria  enchant  us,  but  in  the  glass 
eyes  of  Byzantine  mosaics  a  more  remote  antiquity 

*  Thus,  it  is  believed  that  in  the  list  of  unclean  beasts  the  word 
Xaycoy,  "  hare,"  was  altered  to  SacruTrovç,  to  avoid  any  puns  on  the 
family  name  of  the  dynasty,  Aâyoy,  Aayîôat. 


GREEK  TRANSLATION  OF  THE  PENTATEUCH.      203 

is  gazing  at  us.  The  Alexandrian  therefore  who 
wrote  'Eï^  àp;)^^  iTToCrjcrev  6  Seos  top  ovpavov  /cat  T7)v 
yrjp  merits  the  highest  praises  of  humanity.  He 
divined  the  loftiest  truth  in  history  ;  namelj,  that 
Hebrew  genius  would  conquer  the  whole  earth 
through  the  Greek  tongue,  and  in  close  alliance 
with  Hellenism, 

The  translation  of  the  Prophets  soon  followed  that  of 
the  Torah.  The  practice  of  reading  in  the  synagogues 
called  for  this  addition,  for  very  early  it  became  the 
custom  to  read,  at  the  close  of  the  Sabbath  assembly, 
a  few  pages  from  the  Prophets.  There  was  the  wish, 
besides,  to  show  the  Greeks  the  wealth  of  literary 
treasures  they  possessed."^  Other  Hebrew  books  were 
one  by  one  translated,  and  pious  additions  were  some- 
times made  to  them  after  the  fashion  of  the  time. 
The  Book  of  Esther  seeming  to  possess  too  little 
unction,  prayers  were  added  to  remedy  the  defect. 
As  soon  as  any  important  work  appeared  in  Pales- 
tine, a  translation  of  it  into  Greek  was  made  at 
Alexandria,  often  after  a  very  short  interval  ;t  and 
not  unfrequently  this  Greek  translation  has  been 
better  preserved  than  the  original.  A  knowledge  of 
Hebrew  became  more  and  more  rare  at  Alexandria, 
and  towards  132  the  son  of  Sirach  found  Hebrew 
culture  in  the  Egyptian  colony  at  a  very  low  ebb.| 

Tlie  Greek  Alexandrine  version  had  an  extraordi- 
nary success.     From  Egypt  it  spread  into  Syria,  even 

*  Prologue  of  Ecclesiasticus  (written  about  120  b.c.). 
t  Ibid.  X  Ibid. 


204         HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

into  Palestine  ;  the  Jews  used  it  tbroughout  the 
Grecian  world.*  It  was  the  Bible  of  Philo  and  of 
Josephus,  of  Saint  Paul  and  the  early  Christians, 
who  made  it  the  basis  of  their  apologetic  writings. 
Some  of  the  Messianic  arguments  which  converted 
the  world  came  from  blunders  in  the  Alexandrine 
text,  misread,  misunderstood,  and  taken  in  connec- 
tion wdth  other  blunders.  The  religious  history  of 
the  world,  as  we  have  often  said,  is  made  up  of 
repeated  misconceptions. 

Fable  early  fastened  on  the  Greek  version  of  .the 
Pentateuch,  and  endeavoured  to  disseminate  the  idea 
that  it  was  as  good  as  the  original.!  The  Jewish 
legends  of  those  times  all  further  the  idea  that  the 
Jews  wished  to  give  themselves  importance,  and  to 
show  the  Greeks  that  poor  Israel,  so  humble  as 
they  saw  it,  once  had  relations  with  kings,  nobles, 
and  famous  men  of  the  Greek  world.  They  there- 
fore tried  to  make  out  that  their  Alexandrine  trans- 
lation had  a  share  in  the  glory  of  the  library  at 
x^exandria,  and  in  the  literary  tastes  of  Ptolemy 
Philadelphus.  This  prince  they  said  was  anxious 
to  make  his  library  complete.  Demetrius  Phalereus, 
his  librarian,  one  day  drew  his  attention  to  the  Law 
of  the  Hebrews,  and  gave  it  the  highest  praise.  This 
book  was  lacking  in  the  collection  of  comparative 

*  Tertullian,  Apol,  c.  18;  Justin,  Apol.^  i.  31  ;  Dial,  c.  71  ;  Novellœ, 
146;  Talm.  de  Jer.,  Sofa^  fol.  21,  c.  2  (Cœsarea). 

f  Philo,  Vita  Mosis,  ii.  5,  6,  7;  Josephus,  Antiquities,  proœm.  3, 
xii.  11;  Against  Apion,  ii.  4;  allusions  in  Megillath  Taanith,  fol.  50, 
c.  2;   Tract.  Sopherim,  c.  1. 


GREEK  TRANSLATION  OF  THE  PENTATEUCH.      205 

legislation.  Philadelphus  therefore  sent  to  Jerusalem 
to  ask  the  high-priest  Eleazar  to  furnish  him  with  the 
precious  volume.  The  high-priest  sent  the  scrolls, 
and  with  them  seventy-two  old  men  (six  out  of  each 
tribe),*  who  were  placed  in  a  palace  on  the  Isle  of 
Pharos,  each  in  a  room  apart  from  the  rest  ;  and  in 
seventy-two  days  they  produced  each  a  version  agree- 
ing to  the  last  syllable  with  that  of  the  rest,t  —  an 
evident  proof  that  the  sacred  book  admitted  but  one 
way  of  being  turned  into  Greek,  and  that  inspiration 
had  its  share  in  the  task.  Those  who  did  not  go 
quite  so  far  as  this  asserted  that  the  version  had 
been  transmitted  to  the  Council  of  the  Jews  at  Jeru- 
salem, who  gave  it  their  unreserved  approval.  x\t 
all  events,  the  version  was  to  be  regarded  as  the 
perfect  equivalent  of  the  original. 

The  work  being  finished,  Ptolemy  gave  superb 
presents  to  the  translators,  while  to  the  Jews  he 
accorded  noble  privileges.  So  everybody  was  well 
pleased. 

These  fables  long  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth, 
with  various  alternations  of  wonder  and  embellish- 
ment. An  annual  nautical  celebration  in  the  port 
of  Alexandria,  ending  in  a  feast  on  the  Isle  of 
Pharos,  was  connected  with  the  event.|  We  shall 
soon  see  how  an  apocryphal  writing  §  composed  in 

*  According  to  another  version  of  the  story,  there  were  five  old 
men  for  the  five  portions  of  the  Pentateuch. 

f  Pseudo-Aristeas  (ed.  Schmidt,  p.  306)  tells  the  story  a  little 
differently. 

X  Philo,  Vita  Mosis,  ii.  7.  §  See  p.  221. 


2o6         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Egypt  gave  a  pompons  version  of  these  fables.  The 
Pharos  became  a  sort  of  sacred  spot;  here  Justm 
saw  the  ruins  of  the  cells  of  the  seventy-two 
translators.* 

This  foolish  story  had  prodigious  vogue  among  the 
Christians  of  the  second  century,  who  appealed  to 
the  Alexandrine  version  in  their  controversies,  and 
enthusiastically  accepted  a  tale  which  gave  it  all  the 
authority  of  an  inspired  work.f  From  that  time 
forth  they  felt  authorised  to  reason  from  the  Alex- 
andrine version,  as  if  it  were  the  Hebrew.  Now, 
the  proofs  of  the  Messianic  office  of  Jesus  were  much 
stronger  in  the  Greek  version  than  in  the  Hebrew  ; 
many  of  the  passages  cited  most  triumphantly  were 
only  due  to  false  renderings  in  the  Greek.  The 
miracle  of  the  Septuagint  took  its  place  side  by  side 
with  those  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  as  an 
integral  part  of  sacred  history. 

Having  thus  become  the  basis  of  Christian  Apology, 
the  Alexandrine  version,  from  the  second  century 
down,  excited  the  keen  animosity  of  the  Jews. 
What  they  had  one  and  all  admired,  they  now  de- 
clared to  be  a  perversion  of  their  scripture. |  A  fast, 
it  is  said,  was  established  on  the   8th  day  of   the 

*  Pseudo- Justin,  Cohort,  ad  Grœcos,  §  13. 

I  Justin,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Irenaeus,  Tertullian,  Origen, 
and  the  author  of  the  Cohorlatio  ad  Grœcos  attributed  to  Justin. 
Ov  bf)  ^évov  cTTinpoia  Gfoû  tov  ttju  7rpo(j)T]T€iav  èedaxoroç  Koi  rfjv  épfirjvdav 
olovci  fKXrjvLKTjv  evep-yncrôai  (Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  i.  22).  Cf.  Talm.  of 
Jer.,  Mefjilla,  fol.  62,  c.  4;  Talm.  of  Bab.,  Megilla,  fol.  9;  Tract. 
Sopherim,  c.  1. 

X  Justin,  Dial^  c.  68,  71. 


GREEK  TRANSLATION  OF  THE  PENTATEUCH.      207 

month  Tebeth,  "because  on  that  day  the  Law  was 
written  in  Greek,  in  the  days  of  Ptolemy  ;  darkness 
at  that  time  covered  the  heavens  for  three  days."  * 
Elsewhere  the  day  when  the  five  old  men  wrote  the 
Law  in  Greek  for  Ptolemy  is  represented  to  be 
equally  disastrous  to  Israel  as  the  day  when  Aaron 
made  the  golden  calf.t  After  the  Talmudic  period, 
the  Jews  gave  up  the  use  of  Greek,  and  the  Alexan- 
drine version  went  quite  out  of  their  remembrance. 

*  Megillath  Taanith,  fol.  50,  c.  2. 
f   Tract.  Sopherim,  c.  1. 


CHAPTER  V. 

LITERATURE    OF    THE   ALEXANDRINE    JEWS. 

During  those  years  of  peace  in  Alexandria  tlie  de- 
velopment went  on  with  entire  freedom.  Intercourse 
among  the  various  races  was  close,  and  fertile  in 
results.  The  Hellenists,  who  were  the  dominant 
class,  showed  great  toleration  for  the  turn  of  mind 
natural  to  Orientals,  which  had  much  looser  fibre 
than  their  own.  The  Jews  by  their  humility  and 
their  supple  temper  pleased  their  proud  but  kindly 
masters. "*  The  Jews  made  good  clerks,  good  stew- 
ards, good  under-managers.  During  the  reign  of 
Ptolemy  Philometor,  especially,  the  Jewish  colony 
in  Egypt  was  in  constant  favour.  Of  course  we 
have  to  allow  much  for  exaggeration  and  the  desire 
to  give  themselves  importance,  in  what  Jewish  his- 
torians tell  us  on  this  subject.!  Vanity  and  a  sense 
of  inferiority  made  the  Jews  extremely  sensible  to 
small  favours  from  a  sovereign,  and  led  them  to 
attach  to  these  an  exaggerated  importance.  Like 
all   little  people  honoured   by   the   favours   of   the 

*  See  the  story  of  Joseph  and  Hyrcanus,  p.  248  et  aeq. 
t  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xiii.  iii.  4;    Against  Apion,  ii.  5. 


LITERATURE   OF  THE  ALEXANDRINE  JEWS,    209 

great,  they  wish  to  lose  none  of  the  credit  of  these 
advantages,  and  eagerly  lay  stress  on  all  that  seems 
likely  to  enhance  them.*  We  have  already  pointed 
out  their  tendency  to  swell  the  list  of  foreigners  of 
distinction  who  visited  their  Temple. f  A  provincial 
is  ambitious  of  relations  with  as  many  men  of  note 
as  possible,  and  treasures  among  his  life's  most  pre- 
cious possessions  the  memory  of  the  honours  he  has 
received  from  them  ;  when  he  returns  from  Paris, 
he  likes  to  have  it  thought  that  he  has  met  many 
people  of  consequence,  and  has  been  on  intimate 
terms  with  them.  Thus  Josephus  is  proud  that  his^ 
countrymen  in  Alexandria  "lived  on  terms  of  fa- 
miliarity with  kings;"  he  gives  us  to  understand 
that  in  the  reigns  of  Philometor  and  Cleopatra  Jews 
were  masters  at  court;  and  that,  to  use  his  own 
expression,  "those  two  sovereigns  confided  their 
kingdom  to  Jews."  According  to  him,  two  Jews, 
Onias  and  Dositheus  (Johanan),  were  at  one  time> 
generals-in-chief  of  the  Egyptian  forces.  It  was 
Onias  who,  after  the  death  of  Philometor,  secured 
the  throne  for  Cleopatra  and  her  children  in  oppo- 
sition to  Physcon.ij:  All  this  is  doubtful  ;  but  what 
is  certainly   true  is   that  during  the   period   of  the 

*  Observe  how  eager  are  Jewish  newspapers  in  our  own  day  to 
make  great  mention  of  any  Jews  who  have  been  decorated,  have  had^ 
interviews  with  sovereigns,  or  have  acquired  any  other  distinction. 

t  Euergetes  is  said  to  have  sacrificed  at  Jerusalem  after  a  victory. 
This  fact  is  told  us  twenty  times. 

X  Josephus,  Aga'imt  Apion,  ii.  5.  Josephus  mixed  up  with  his 
story  a  miracle  very  like  that  on  which  the  narrative  in  3  :Maccabees 
is  founded.     A  feast  is  also  established  in  honour  of  this  miracle. 

VOL.  IV.  —  14 


2IO         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 


struggle  between  the  Seleucidas  and  the  Lagidœ  the 
Jews  throughout  the  East  took  the  side  of  the  latter, 
and  resrarded  the  defeats  of  the  northern  kino;dom 
as  victories  in  the  cause  of  order  and  legitimacy.* 

Jewish  vanity  has  covered  these  early  traditions 
of  Judaic  Hellenism  with  such  a  tissue  of  imposture 
that  it  is  very  difficult  in  this  obscure  story  to  dis- 
cern what  is  true  from  what  is  apocryphal.  What 
seems  certain  is  that  during  the  reign  of  Ptolemy 
Philometor  (170-150  B.  c.)  the  Jews  of  Alexandria 
made  a  close  compact  with  Hellenism,  were  seized 
with  a  spirit  of  emulation,  and  began  to  write  in 
Greek  in  imitation  of  the  Greeks.  Their  first  at- 
tempts in  this  line  were  not  very  happy.  Up  to 
this  time  Jews  had  had  no  notions  of  literary  criti- 
cism. The  false  reasonings  which  they  heard  on 
Homer  and  the  old  Greek  writers  disturbed  their 
biblical  exegesis,  which  was  defective  enough  already. 
A  superficial  acquaintance  with  the  origin  of  Greek 
mythology  and  history,  as  it  was  taught  at  Alex- 
andria, threw  them  into  a  senseless  syncretism.  The 
mania  for  speculating  about  Orpheus  and  Trismegis- 
tus  led  the  Jews  to  imagine  endless  fables  about 
Abraham.  They  had  long  ceased  to  understand  the 
true  spirit  of  their  ancient  Scriptures.  The  most 
superficial  likeness  was  sufficient  to  make  them  iden- 
tify stories  in  the  Bible  with  features  in  the  Greek 
mythology,  or  with  ill-understood  data  of   ancient 

*  Daniel  xi.,  xii. 


LITERATURE   OF  THE  ALEXANDRINE  JEWS.    211 

erudition.''^  Wretched  historical  compositions,  some- 
times wholly  fraudulent,  but  yet  accepted  with  all 
confidence  by  Jewish  Christian  apologists,  were 
the  result  of  this  fever  brought  upon  Israel  by  a 
too  rapid  inoculation  of  Hellenism.  Demetrius,! 
Aristeas,  I  Cleodemus  or  Malchus,  §  seem  to  have 
been  really  in  earnest  in  their  pretended  historical 
lucubrations.  Eupolemus  ||  and  Artapanus  (or  at 
least  the  Jew  who  concealed  his  identity  under  this 
absurd  name)  put  no  bounds  to  their  charlatan 
fancies.  Artapanus^  tells  us  that  the  Egyptians 
received  from  the  Jews  all  their  knowledge  and  all 
their  institutions.  Abraham  taught  astrology  to 
King  Pharethothes;  Joseph  rendered  numberless  like 
services.  The  most  celebrated  temples  in  Egypt 
were  built  by  the  sons  of  Jacob.  All  the  Egyptian 
worship  was  due  to  Moses  :  he  was  the  Musaeus  of 
the  Greeks,  the  master  of  Orpheus;  he  invented 
navigation,  architecture,  the  military  art,  philosophy  ; 
he  divided  Egypt  into  thirty-six  administrative  dis- 
tricts {vofxoi);  he  taught  the  Egyptians  to  honour 

*  I  have  treated  this  subject  in  my  monograph  on  Sanconiatho, 
Mem.  de  V Académie  des  Inscriptions,  xxiii.  2d  part,  p.  241,  &c. 

t  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Strom.  1.  xxi.;  Eusebius,  Prœp.  ev.,  ix., 
xxi.,  and  xxix. 

X  Eusebius,  Prœp.  ev.  ix.,  xxv. 

§  Josephus,  Antiquities,  i.  xv.  Some  of  the  above-mentioned  com- 
positions may  be  of  Samaritan  origin. 

II  Josephus  knew  him  (Against  Apion,  i.  23),  but  mistook  him  for 
a  pagan. 

H  Josephus  appears  to  have  used  his  work  without  naming  him 
(Freudenthal,  Alex.  Polijh.,  169-171). 


212         HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

God,  and  instructed  the  priests  in  hieroglyphics  ;  he 
was  the  same  as  Hermes,  —  and  so  on. 

These  childish  fables  were  sometimes  told  in 
verse.  Histories  of  Jerusalem  and  Shechem"^  were 
related  in  bad  hexameters,  and  a  certain  Ezekiel 
made  a  miserable  tragedy  out  of  the  exodus  from 
Egypt,  t 

Criticism  was  so  little  known  in  antiquity,  even 
among  the  Greeks,  that  these  puerile  compositions 
were  taken  seriously  by  some  of  the  Egyptians.  It 
was  impossible  that  a  public  so  curious  as  that  of 
Alexandria  should  not  have  felt  interested  in  the 
past  history  of  the  Jewish  people,  and  should  not 
have  made  its  studies  upon  the  Jews  (Ilepl  'louSatwi^), 
when  it  had  its  treatises  on  the  pettiest  populations.^ 
The  celebrated  Manetho  most  certainly  wrote  about 
the  Jews,  and  the  passage  which  Josephus§  quotes 
from  him  may  very  probably  have  been  really  his, 
though  it  may  also  have  been  interpolated  into  the 
copy  of  Manetho's  text,  which  Josephus  was  making 
use  of.  The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  Lysimachus,|| 
of  Cheremon,^  of  Hecataeus,**  and  perhaps  of  Her- 
mippus.tt  Many  exaggerated  praises  of  the  Jews 
which  Josephus  borrows  from  these  writers  really 

*  Eusebius,  Prœp.  ev.  ix.,  xx.,  xxii.,  xxiv.,  xxxvii. 

f  Ibid.,  ix.,  xxviii.,  xxix. 

J  See  Ch.  Muller,  Fragm.  hist,  grœc,  iv.  idex. 

§  Against  Apion,  i.  26,  27. 

II   Josephus,  Against  Apion,  34,  35. 

^  Ibid.,  32,  33. 

**  Ch.  Muller,  Fragm.  hist,  grœc,  ii.  391,  392,  393. 

tt  See  later,  p.  216. 


LITERATURE   OF   THE  ALEXANDRINE  JEWS,    213 

proceed  from  them;  but  tliey  themselves  had  bor- 
rowed them  from  Jewish  fabulists. 

One  circumstance,  besides,  made  the  circulation  of 
these  falsehoods  particularly  easy.  The  great  com- 
piler, Alexander  Polyhistor,  writing  towards  the 
year  75  b.  c.  upon  all  sorts  of  subjects,  did  not  omit 
the  Jews,  and  composed  a  Tlept  *\ovhaliùv^  This 
ITe/DL  *\ov^aiixiv  was  a  mere  uncritical  collection  of 
extracts.!  Alexander  had  not  a  fortunate  hand; 
he  stumbled  on  the  weak  literature  we  have  just 
described.  Almost  all  the  apocryphal  stories  told 
about  the  Jews  were  borrowed  from  Polyhistor  ;  it  is 
through  him,  or,  if  you  prefer,  through  Clement  of 
Alexandria  and  Eusebius,  who  borrowed  from  his 
compilation,  that  they  were  saved  from  the  oblivion 
they  well  deserved. 

A  certain  apologetic  motive  generally  mingles  in 
the  composition  of  these  works.  The  Israelites, 
standing  face  to  face  with  a  public  either  hostile  or 
Ignorant  of  their  past,  were  naturally  inclined  to 
boastfulness.     They  were  sophisticated,  too,  by  fre- 

*  He  speaks  of  the  Jews  also  in  other  places. 

-j-  A  strong  argument  against  the  authenticity  of  the  rTfpî  'lovSaicov 
is  that  Josephus  did  not  know  of  its  existence.  The  quotation  in 
Antiquities,  i.  xv.,  is  not  taken  from  it.  We  therefore  ask  ourselves 
whether  it  may  not  have  had  its  origin,  like  the  Exegesis  of  Aristo- 
bulus,  among  the  crowd  of  apologists  in  the  second  century  of  our  era, 
not  far  from  the  middle  of  which  lived  Saint  Justin.  According  to 
this  hypothesis,  all  the  authors  quoted  in  the  Uepl  'louSaicov  must  have 
been  manufactured  by  the  author  of  the  apocryphal  compilation. 
This  it  is  hard  to  admit,  because  of  the  agreement  of  these  authors 
with  Josephus  (Against  Apion,  i.  23)  ;  (f)a\T]p€vs  may  be  a  marginal 
addition,  which  has  been  included  in  the  text. 


214         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL, 

quenting  the  Greek  schools.  Proud  as  they  were 
of  their  national  literature,  and  now  made  familiar 
with  the  course  of  ancient  Greek  literature,  so  well 
known  to  the  grammarians  of  Alexandria  (those 
were  the  days  of  Aristarchus  and  Crates  of  Mallos), 
the  Jews  could  not  fail  to  make  comparisons  ;  and 
naturally  they  gave  the  preference  to  the  writings 
of  their  fathers.  They  maintained  that  the  He- 
brew Scriptures  were  the  more  ancient,  which  was 
true  ;  but  they  supported  this  assertion  with  much 
bad  reasoning.  The  great  objection  made  by  the 
Hellenists  was  the  little  space  held  by  the  Hebrews 
in  the  classical  writers  of  Greece,  who  alone  deserved 
confidence.^  To  make  up  for  this  silence  (which 
is  surprising  to  us  also),  they  invented  wholesale 
a  series  of  citations  favourable  to  Israel.  Thev 
insisted  that  the  ancient  Greeks  had  known  and 
esteemed  the  Jews  ;  that  they  spoke  of  them  as  a 
noble  people;  that  they  related  things  about  them 
infinitely  to  their  honour.  Wherever  patriotism  is 
intense,  it  makes  these  encroachments  upon  truth. 
They  quoted  especially  Theophilus,  Theodotus,  Mna- 
seas,  Aristophanes,  Hermogenes,  Euhemerus,  Conon, 
Zopyrion,  and  Demetrius  Phalereus.f  They  con- 
fessed, indeed,  that  these  mentions  of  Israel  in  Greek 
antiquity  were  not  so  numerous  as  they  should  have 
been.  This  was  the  outcome  of  a  sort  of  fear,  of  a 
respectful  timidity,  such  as  one  feels  in  approaching 

*  Josephiis,  Against  Aplon,  i.  22, 
t  Josephus,  Against  Apion,  i.  23. 


LITERATURE   OF  THE  ALEXANDRINE  JEWS,    215 

sacred  things  ;  *  of  tenest,  however,  a  base  envy  is  the 
real  source.  Many  classic  authors  (it  was  said)  had 
known  the  Jews,  but  had  abstained  from  mentioning 
them  from  a  feeling  of  jealousy. t  Oh,  how  perverse 
of  them  !  To  repair  as  far  as  possible  the  conse- 
quences of  this  conspiracy  of  silence,  Jewish  writers 
set  to  work  to  manufacture  texts  of  eminent  authors, 
that  they  might  buttress  a  history  which  in  the  past 
stood  solitary  as  a  wall.  Pagans  would  have  only 
Greek  authorities,^  and  Jews  provided  them.  As 
they  refused  to  recognize  the  truth  in  Hebrew,  they 
were  furnished  with  witnesses  in  Greek  which  they 
could  not  reject. 

In  the  time  of  Alexander  and  of  the  first  Ptolemy 
lived  a  man  of  high  esteem  for  learning,  Hecatseus 
of  Abdera,  whose  writings,  on  Egypt  especially,  were 
of  great  authority.  In  his  works  he  spoke  of  the 
Jews  with  great  justice  and  impartiality.  This  led 
the  Jewish  forgers  to  foist  their  falsities  on  him. 
They  attributed  to  this  man  of  learning  in  a  pre- 
ceding century  a  Tlept  '\ovha,icùv  or  TTepl  ^A/Spdfjiov, 
which  was  naturally  ad  majorevi  gloriam  Judœorum.% 
It  is  generally  believed  that  the  forger  did  little  more 
than  embroider  upon  authentic  passages  of  Hecataeus 
a  whole  series  of  his  own  inventions.     His  principal 

*  Pseudo-Aristeas,  ed.  Schmidt,  p.  259.  Cf.  Eusebius,  Prœp. 
evang.,  viii.  iii.  3;  Josephus,  Antiquities,   xii.  ii.  3. 

t  Josephus,  Against  Apion,  i.  22,  23. 

X  Josephus,  Against  Apion,  i.  22. 

§  Quotations  in  the  Pseudo-Aristeas,  Josephus,  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria, and  Origen.     See  Ch.  Miiller,  Fragm.  hist,  grcec,  ii.  391-393. 


2i6         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

object  is  to  prove  that  the  nobles  of  the  Greeks  had 
been  in  full  sympathy  with  the  Jews,  and  had 
admired  the  purity  of  Israelitish  worship. 

The  East  as  well  as  Greece  was  called  upon  to 
bear  witness  to  the  antiquity  and  veracity  of  the 
books  of  Israel.  Egyptian,  Chaldean,  and  Phoeni- 
cian writers,  —  why  might  they  not  serve  as  well  as 
Greeks  %  Now,  such  testimonies  abound.^  Already, 
perhaps,  the  Jews  were  busying  themselves  with 
Berosus,  Manetho,  and  the  arguments  that  might 
be  drawn  from  the  Chalddica  or  the  jEgyptiaca  in 
defence  of  Moses.  In  general,  the  entire  apologetic 
of  Josephus  goes  back  to  the  Jewish  school  in  Alex- 
andria in  the  second  century  b.  c,  as  the  attacks  of 
Apion  (in  the  first  half  of  the  first  century  after 
Christ)  were  a  mere  repetition  of  things  said  in 
Alexandria  ever  since  the  time  of  Philometor. 

Pythagoras  stood  so  high  in  the  opinion  of  phi- 
losophers at  that  period  that  it  was  a  great  object  to 
prove  that  he  had  known  the  Jews,  and  had  imitated 
them.  It  was  asserted  that  the  essential  elements 
of  his  noble  doctrine  were  derived  from  the  Jews. 
The  historian  Hermippus,  author  of  a  life  of  Pytha- 
goras written  about  225  b.  c,  had  already  (it  was 
said)  indicated  something  of  the  kind.f  But  that 
is  very  doubtful,  though  the  uncritical  spirit  of  the 

*  Josephus,  Against  Apion,  i.  23. 

t  Josephus,  Against  Apion,  i.  22;  Oricceii,  Against  Celsus,  i.  15. 
Possibly  the  words  lovdaioùv  koL  are  an  addition  made  by  some  Jew. 
Josephus  in  all  probability  used  volumes  that  had  been  read  and  anno- 
tated by  Jews  before  his  day. 


LITERATURE   OF  THE  ALEXANDRINE  JEWS.    217 

time  allows  us  to  think  that  even  pagan  writers 
availed  themselves,  in  such  matters,  of  very  super- 
ficial resemblances. 

If  we  may  believe  the  Christian  Apologists,  there 
lived    in    the    days   of    Philometor   a   learned   Jew 
attached  to  the  peripatetic  school,  named  Aristobulus, 
who   addressed    to   the    king    an    exposition   of    the 
writings  of  Moses.     The  pretensions  of  the  Jews  were 
then  carried  to  their  height.*     The  peripatetic  phi- 
losophy was  entirely  derived  from  Moses.    Long  before 
Alexander,  even  before  the  days  of  the  Persian  kings, 
there  had  been  translations  of  the  Scriptures  ;  Pytha- 
goras,   Socrates,    and    Plato   w^ere   acquainted    with 
them,  and  had   borrowed  from  them.      Plato  espe- 
cially in  his  Republic  had  imitated  Moses.     Homer 
and  Hesiod  also  owed  him  much.     Aristobulus  had 
employed  the  usual  exegesis  of  the  Hellenistic  Jews, 
which    consisted    in    forestalling   by    allegorical    ex- 
planations any  objections  that  might  be  drawn  from 
the   anthropomorphisms  in  the  Bible.     \Yhere  it  is 
written  "  God  spake  and  it  was  done,"  he  explains 
that  the  divine  force  was  exerted,  as  Greek  philoso- 
phers had  taught,  and   Orpheus  and  Aratus.     The 
six  days  of  Creation,  and  the  day  of  rest  for  the 
Almighty   that   followed   them,    are    also    symbols. 
These   assertions    are    not    incompatible    with    the 
exegesis  and  criticism  of  the  Alexandrine  Jews  in 
the  days  of  Philometor  ;  but  the  authenticity  of  the 

*  Clement  of   Alexandria,   Strom.,  i.   xv.  xxii.  ;    v.  xiv.;  vi.  iii.  ; 
Eusebius,  Prœp.  ey.,  viii.  ix.  x.  ;  xiii.  xii.  ;  Hist.  eccL,  vii.  xxxii.  17, 18. 


2i8         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Book  of  Aristobulus  suffers  from  other  great  diffi- 
culties.* We  consider  it  to  have  been  an  apocryphal 
workj  composed  in  the  second  century  of  the  Chris- 
tian era,  about  the  time  of  Saint  Justin  and  Tatian. 
The  assertions  of  the  author  are  not  made  in  simple 
good  faith  ;  they  are  those  of  a  charlatan,  and  as 
foolish  as  those  of  Artapanus.  He  knew  very  well 
that  Plato,  Homer,  and  Hesiod  never  copied  from 
the  Hebrew  Bible  ;  but  he  wrote  what  he  did  for 
ignorant  men,  hoping  to  throw  dust  in  their  eyes.f 

The  allegorical  exegesis  of  which  the  Jews  of 
Alexandria  made  so  strange  abuse  was,  in  their  way 
of  employing  it,  a  downright  monstrous  falsehood. 
To  forestall  the  contempt  with  which  Hellenic 
rationalists  might  have  treated  certain  traits  told 
with  a  grand  simplicity  in  the  ancient  Hebrew 
scriptures,  they  made  haste  to  say,  "  Oh,  no  !  that 

*  Aristobulus  quotes  the  2o(jf)îa  2aX.  (Cf.  Delaunay,  Pliilo^  p.  45, 
note  1.)  Now,  the  'S.o^ia  was  written  at  the  close  of  the  second 
century  b.  c. 

•f  Clement  of  Alexandria  was  the  first  to  quote  the  work  of  Aristo- 
bulus. It  is  a  very  surprising  circumstance  that  Josephus  and  Saint 
Justin  had  neither  of  them  known  of  such  a  book.  The  fables  of  the 
Pseudo-Aristeas,  particularly  the  part  which  Demetrius  Phalereus 
must  have  taken  from  the  Greek  translation  of  the  Bible,  are  men- 
tioned by  the  author.  All  his  quotations  are  found  elsewhere  in  the 
writings  of  the  Apologists,  and  in  a  better  condition.  (See  especially 
Schiirer,  ii.  p.  814.)  The  dedication  to  Ptolemy  Philometor  is  espe- 
cially improbable  ;  the  falseness  of  the  statements  and  the  quotations  is 
too  easy  to  verify.  Such  works  could  only  have  been  produced  in  a 
literary  circle  of  a  very  low  type,  where  an  extraordinary  lack  of  skill 
was  permitted  to  have  its  way.  The  forger,  in  choosing  his  author's 
fictitious  name,  may  have  had  in  view  Aristobulus,  "  the  preceptor  of 
Ptolemy,"  who  figures  in  2  Maccabees  i.  10.  Cf.  Eusebius,  Prccp. 
ev.j  vii.  ix. 


LITERATURE   OF   THE  ALEXANDRINE  JEWS.    219 

never  happened.  Those  things  are  types  and  meta- 
phors." The  innumerable  passages  in  which  lahveh 
acts  in  an  anthropomorphic  manner  were  explained 
and  twisted  ;  they  were  said  to  be  symbolic,  or  ex- 
amples of  the  old  figurative  style.  All  apologists 
are  alike.  Is  it  not  by  means  of  childish  allegories 
that  apologists  in  our  own  day  endeavour  to  escape 
from  the  pressure  of  common-sense,  or  rather  from 
the  fetters  of  a  theological  past?  These  proud 
churches  once  burnt  thinkers  who  tried  by  such 
poor  makeshifts  to  ward  off  the  impossibilities  of 
the  current  exegesis  ;  but  now,  at  bay,  they  betake 
themselves  to  the  same  expedients  to  which  they 
once  were  merciless.  Thus  the  world  moves  on  ; 
but  through  all  the  absurdities  that  perish,  poor 
reason,  which  never  allows  anything  to  be  quite 
lost,  still  pursues  her  way. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

COMMENCEMENT   OF    PEOSELYTISM.  —  PIOUS   FRAUDS. 

All  this  seems  puerile  ;  but  it  is  really  grand,  full 
of  promise  for  the  future,  and  touches  us  with  a 
certain  pathos.  The  end,  as  is  often  the  case,  was 
worth  far  more  than  the  means  employed  to  attain 
it.  Israel  was  attaining  to  an  idea  which  had  in- 
deed been  that  of  its  ancient  prophets,  but  which 
seemed  to  have  become  strange  to  it  since  the  re- 
turn from  the  Captivity,  —  the  idea  of  propagandism, 
of  making  proselytes.  A  true  feeling  of  charity 
appeared  with  the  desire  to  do  good,  and  the  effort 
to  better  the  condition  of  their  neighbours,  to  bring 
them  into  the  same  state  with  themselves,  in  which 
they  felt  so  happy.  Judaism  was  so  excellent  !  It 
was  the  true  religion  ;  why  should  it  not  be  the  re- 
ligion of  all  ?  Judaism  is  only  the  worship  of  one 
God,  and  the  practice  of  morality.  Every  good  man 
ought  to  become  a  Jew  ;  true  religion  has  only  two 
enemies,  —  polytheism  and  a  corrupt  life. 

To  become  a  Jew,  —  one  must  understand  what 
that  meant.  Some,  indeed,  considered  all  the  good 
men  upon  earth  as  sons  of  the  God  of  Israel.     Others 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  PROSELYTISM,  221 

went  further  still.  All  the  names  given  to  God  are 
synonyms  ;  a  good  pagan  monotheist  might  remain 
a  pagan,  provided  he  observed  the  natural  law,  of 
which  the  Jewish  Law  is  the  most  perfect  expres- 
sion. To  preach  to  the  heathen  became  from  that 
time  forth  one  of  the  fixed  ideas  of  the  Jews  in 
Alexandria.  Literary  fiction  was  almost  always  the 
form  adopted  in  the  writings  of  this  propaganda, 
the  writer's  object  being  to  make  pompous  praises  of 
the  Law  proceed  out  of  the  mouths  of  unbelievers. 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus  was  considered  in  those  days 
the  model  of  a  well-educated  and  intelligent  king. 
What  an  advantage  for  the  truth,  could  it  be  proved 
that  Ptolemy  Philadelphus  had  an  especial  esteem 
for  Judaism  and  for  its  Law  ! 

Accordingly,  this  was  what  a  pious  Jew  of  Alexan- 
dria undertook  to  do  ;  and  he  took  for  the  frame- 
work of  his  fiction  the  origin  of  the  Greek  version 
of  the  Bible,  and  the  fables  that  had  grown  up  around 
it.*  A  certain  Aristeas  —  a  high  officer  in  the  court 
of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  and  a  pagan  in  belief  — 
writes  to  his  brother  Philocrates,  also  a  pagan,  but  a 
man  of  fine  intelligence,  impartial,  and  anxious  to 
know  everything  worth  knowing  in  his  day,  and  tells 
him  his  impressions  of  the  excellence  of  the  Law  of 

*  The  latest  edition  is  that  of  M.  Maurice  Schmidt  in  JNIerx's 
ArcMvy  i.  241-312.  See  also  Lunibroso,  Atti  delV  Acad,  di  Torino^ 
1868-1869;  and  Recherches  sur  Vécon.  polit,  de  V Egypte  sous  les  La- 
gides  (Turin,  1870),  p.  351,  &c.  ;  and  Papageorgios,  Ueberden  Aristeas- 
hrief,  Munich,  1880.  The  document  exhibits  some  very  remarkable 
Egyptian  peculiarities. 


222         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

the  Jews.  These  men  were  enlightened  pagans,  and 
consequently  deists.  There  is  but  one  God,  under 
various  names.  ^'They  worship  God  the  Creator, 
who  watches  over  everything.  Him  all  men  adore  ; 
we,  in  particular,  calling  him  Zen  or  Zeus."*  Aris- 
teas,  by  reason  of  his  duties  at  court,  has  been  directly 
concerned  in  the  completion  of  the  work  of  the  Sev- 
enty. He  has  seen  the  great  consideration  with 
which  the  seventy-two  learned  Jews  have  been  treated, 
the  splendid  presents  that  the  king,  by  advice  of  De- 
metrius Phalereus,  has  given  them,  and  the  superb 
palace  built  for  them  at  Pharos,  that  they  might  not 
be  disturbed  by  the  noises  of  the  city.  Jerusalem, 
the  writer  thinks,  belongs  to  the  King  of  Egypt. 
The  Jews  live  there  fully  independent,  in  the  com- 
fort and  prosperity  due  to  their  own  virtues  ;  for  when 
one  is  as  good  as  they,  he  must  be  happy.  Never 
was  any  nation  so  prosperous  ;  their  land  is  fertile, 
their  seaports  excellent,  their  government  perfect, 
as  it  must  be  with  a  people  by  God  rewarded  here 
below.  Aristeas  has  seen  this  with  his  own  eyes, 
having  been  one  of  the  embassy  sent  for  the  sev- 
enty-two learned  Jews,  and  to  carry  presents  to  the 
high-priest.  The  Jewish  Law  is  a  law  that  conforms 
to  Nature  ;  its  deep  meaning  is  the  very  reality  of 
things.!  It  throws  light  unlimited  on  all  sorts  of 
subjects.  Philadelphus  on  eight  consecutive  days 
invited  the  learned  Jews  to  his  table.     He  put  to 

*  Schmidt,  pp.  255,  250. 

f  1r\v  o-eupÔTTjTa  tcai  (^vcikt^v  didvoiav  nporjyfiai.      Schmidt,  p.  283. 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  PROSELYTISM.  223 

them  all  manner  of  questions  in  politics,  ethics,  and 
practical  wisdom.  They  answered  in  a  way  that 
filled  the  king  with  admiration.  Thus  the  most  en- 
lightened of  sovereigns  and  the  wisest  of  his  coun- 
sellors esteemed  the  Law,  and  praised  it  highly. 
What  a  recommendation  was  this  for  Hellenist  de- 
ists, convinced  of  the  folly  of  idolatry,  whom  the 
author  supposes  to  be  numerous  around  him! 

It  is  not  doubtful,  indeed,  that  there  must  have 
been  many  such  Greeks  in  Alexandria;  cultivated 
men,  whom  philosophj^  had  led  to  a  sort  of  deism 
analogous  to  the  eclecticism  of  Cicero  a  hundred 
years  later.  Theophrastus,  in  his  "  Treatise  on 
Piety,"  had  proclaimed  the  precepts  of  the  purest 
religion.  The  Stoics  in  many  points  were  like  en- 
lightened Jews.*"  Agreement,  therefore,  between 
Judaism  and  Greek  deistic  sects  had  apparently  be- 
come possible  ;  but  the  time  was  not  yet  ripe.  Men 
of  learning  disliked  Judaism  ;  the  middle  classes, 
worthy  people  but  without  culture,  amongst  whom 
Christianity  found  the  soil  for  its  growth,  wxre  too 
few.  The  world  was  still  too  aristocratic.  To  pro- 
mote so  useful  an  evolution,  so  far  from  the  domain 
of  reason,  there  needed  the  wide  top-dressing  of 
democracy,  with  which  the  Roman  Empire  fertilised 
the  world. 

On  the  part  of  Israel,  the  concessions  were  very 
great.  The  needs  of  the  propaganda  brought  about 
a  certain  shock  of  reaction,  which  showed  itself  so 

*  Orig.  du  Christ.,  v.  305,  306. 


224  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL. 

strikingly  in  the  early  days  of  Christianity.  It  was 
felt  that  to  win  souls  Judaism  must  be  simplified  ; 
that  its  complicated  religious  observances  could  not 
suit  everybody;  that  the  law  destined  for  Gentiles 
must  be  reduced  to  what  were  beginning  to  be  called 
the  precepts  of  Noah,  —  that  is,  to  the  precepts  of 
natural  morality,  and  the  addition  of  a  few  points 
which  the  Jews  considered  as  nearly  of  the  same 
rank,  —  rules  concerning  marriage,  abstinence  from 
unclean  meats,  above  all,  from  blood.  These  made 
the  conditions  of  Christian  fellowship  in  what  is 
called  the  First  Council  at  Jerusalem.*  Nothing- 
was  said  of  circumcision,  or  of  observance  of  the 
Sabbath,  —  such  essential  parts  of  Judaism  for  the 

Jews.t 

Alexandria  had  the  glory  of  inaugurating  this 
movement,  whence  came  the  Sibylline  Books,  Es- 
senism,  and  Christianity.:):  Alexandria  thus  took 
up  a  position  the  very  opposite  to  Jerusalem.  The 
idea  of  winning  over  an  unbeliever  to  the  Jewish 
faith  by  facilitating  his  admission  and  mitigating 
for  his  sake  the  rigours  of  the  Law,  would  have 
seemed  monstrous  in  Judea.  In  Egypt  it  made  head- 
way in  all  directions.  The  Jew  was  content  at  first 
to  proclaim  the  excellence  of  his  Law  ;  as  yet  there 
were   no  conversions.      The    proselyte    would    soon 

*  Saint  PauU  p-  79,  &c.     [Acts  xv.] 

t   Sibylline  Books.     Pseudo-Phocylides. 

X  Christianity  abolished  not  only  circumcision,  but  also  the  Sab- 
bath. Sunday  is  not  the  Sabbath.  Saint  Paul,  p.  263  ;  The  Gospels, 
p.  376  ;  Marcus  Aurelius,  pp.  509,  523. 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  PROSELYTISM.  225 

come,  and  bring  into  the  new  religion  he  embraced 
his  good  faith,  his  tenderness  of  heart,  and  his  piety 
as  a  new  disciple.  This  simplified  Judaism,  purely 
deistic  and  ethical,  was  naturally  friendly  to  Greece, 
and  aimed  to  be  on  good  terms  with  her.  The  Jew 
in  Palestine  knew  nothing  about  Greece,  or  else 
despised  her.  The  Egyptian  Jew  knew  her  and  ad- 
mired her.  Indeed,  what  did  Moses  teach  ?  He 
told  of  a  God  who  rewards  good  and  punishes  evil. 
And  what  morality  did  he  teach  ?  That  eternal 
morality  which  the  sages  of  Greece  taught  likewise. 
It  only  needed,  therefore,  that  Jew  and  Greek  should 
understand  each  other.  This  school  of  HellenisiuE 
Jews,  so  puerile  in  argument,  so  irritating  to  us  by  its 
historic  falsehoods,  thus  proved  itself  great,  fruitful, 
providential.  It  was  essentially  the  offspring  of  the 
Second  Isaiah,  and  it  prepared  the  way  for  Chris- 
tianity. A  monotheistic  and  moral  propaganda  was 
gradually  organised.  To  save  it  men  recoiled  before 
no  violence.  Theirs  was  the  cause  of  truth  and 
right.  This  may  excuse  in  them  a  few  pious  frauds, 
a  few  fabricated  verses. 

Since  pagan  Hellenists,  they  thought,  would  only 
accept  the  authority  of  their  own  writers,  it  occurred 
to  them,  as  we  have  said,  to  get  together  a  collection 
of  classic  passages  favourable  to  the  life  and  Scrip- 
ture of  the  Jews.  They  chose  the  most  highly 
honoured  names  out  of  ancient  Greek  literature  to 
give  the  holy  doctrine  a  favourable  hearing  with  the 
pagan  masses.     Sometimes  they  took  single  verses 


VOL.  IV.  —  15 


226         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

out  of  ancient  texts,  or  fragments  which  seemed  to 
serve  the  cause;  sometimes  they  altered  passages; 
sometimes  they  made  up  statements  out  of  the  whole 
cloth.  This  propaganda,  masking  in  pagan  guise, 
was  doubtless  held  to  be  a  deed  of  piety  and  merit. 

Like  all  great  literary  centres,  Alexandria  estab- 
lished two  grades  (so  to  speak)  in  the  public  of  let- 
ters, —  masters  or  professors,  living  apart  and  holding 
their  learned  discussions  among  themselves,  under 
the  rules  of  criticism  of  the  day  ;  and  a  sort  of  culti- 
vated inferior  class,  w^hich  knew  things  only  by 
halves,  like  our  own  newspaper  public,  open  to  any 
sort  of  credulity.  In  such  an  atmosphere  literary 
frauds  had  the  finest  of  chances  to  see  the  light. 
The  Alexandrian  who  had  heard  of  Orpheus  was 
dizzy  with  delight  when  verses  of  Orpheus  himself 
were  quoted  to  him,  shaped  to  the  very  ideas  of  his 
own  age.  He  had  no  thought  of  verifying  them. 
The  official  teacher  probably  never  heard  of  these 
frauds  ;  at  any  rate,  he  did  as  we  all  do  when  we 
hear  of  some  low-down  imposture,  —  he  made  no 
protest. 

The  poem  of  Aratus,  which  was  nearly  a  hundred 
years  old,  had  an  immense  success.  They  made 
much  especially  of  the  first  line  in  it,  — 

Ek  Atôç  dpp(a)/x€(r^aj* 

and  that  other  hemistich,  — 

Tov  yap  Kttt  yivo%  i(TfJL€V,'f 

*  Eusebius,  Prœp.  ey.,  xiii.  xii.  10,  &c. 
f  Acts  xvii.  28. 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  PROSELYTISM.  227 

both  of  which  express  an  elevated  thought.  More 
or  less  fabricated  are  the  lines  attributed  to  ^Eschv- 
lus,  Sophocles,  Euripides,  Philemon,  Menander,  Di- 
philus,  Orpheus,  Hesiod,  Homer,  and  Linus. "^  It  is 
supposed,  and  not  without  probabiHty,  that  most  of 
these  mystifications  proceeded  from  the  Pseudo- 
Hecataeus.t  The  poem  attributed  to  Orpheus  is  not 
without  a  certain  beauty.  Orpheus,  having  reached 
the  end  of  his  career,  makes  a  kind  of  confession  to 
his  son  Musaeus.  He  retracts  all  his  previous  poems 
consecrated  to  polytheism,  and  proclaims  the  one 
true  God.  Linus  also,  in  a  piece  attributed  to  him, 
expresses  some  very  fine  sentiments.:]: 

The  ancient  gnomic  poet,  Phocylides  of  Miletus, 
enjoyed  a  great  reputation  in  respect  to  his  moral 
precepts.  A  sage  of  Alexandria,  a  brother  in  spirit 
of  Jesus  son  of  Sirach,  chose  the  form  of  Phocylides 
to  make  a  collection  of  maxims  of  natural  morality, 
in  wliich  the  part  played  by  Judaism  is  very  weak, 
and  the  precepts  of  Noah  are  reduced  to  precepts 
on  health  and  cleanliness.  §     The  Sabbath  itself  is 

*  These  verses  may  be  found  in  the  CoTiortatio  ad  Grœcos,  and  in 
the  De  Monarchia,  falsely  attributed  to  Saint  Jerome,  in  the  Slromata 
of  Clement  of  Alexandria,  and  the  Prœparatio  evangelica  of  Eusebius. 

t  Schiirer,  Gesch.  des  Jud.  Volkes,  ii.  810,  8ni.  Many  of  the  fabri- 
cated verses  imply  a  very  advanced  theory  of  the  end  of  the  world. 
De  ^fonarchia,  3  (Pseudo-Sophocles). 

J  Quoted  by  Aristobulus. 

§  See  Saint  Paul,  p.  80,  &c.  ;  J.  Bernays,  Gesamm.  AhhandL,  i.  192- 
261;  Schiirer,  ii.  824-827.  This  document  has  never  been  quoted 
either  by  Jewish  or  Christian  apologists;  but  its  affinity  with  the 
Sibylline  poems  is  striking  (Carm.  sibylL,  ii.  56-148),  audit  seems  much 
more  Jewish  than  Christian. 


228         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

omitted  in  this  little  code,  whose  object  was  less  to 
convert  the  reader  to  Judaism  than  to  make  him  a 
good  man,  a  believer  in  God  and  in  future  retribu- 
tion. The  name  of  the  celebrated  philosopher  He- 
raclitus  ^  was  used  in  the  same  way.  Forged  letters 
were  a  favourite  method  of  proceeding.  These 
books  were  much  read.  The  apocryphal  correspond- 
ence of  Diogenes  t  was  also  interpolated  by  some 
Jew,  desirous  of  inculcating  his  own  principles  of 
natural  morality,  touched  with  a  mitigated  Mosaic 
tinge.  Later,  the  names  of  Hermes,  ^Esculapius, 
and  Hystaspes  were  thus  misused.  There  is  nothing 
to  prove  to  us  that  in  ancient  times  these  myth- 
ical names  sheltered  any  writings  of  a  monotheistic 
tendency. 

*  Bernays,  Gesamm.  AbhandL,  i.  70,  &c.  ;  Die  Heracl.  Briefe,  Berlin, 
1869  ;  Schurer,  pp.  827,  828. 

t  Bernays,  Lucian  u.  die  Cyniker,  Berlin,  1879,  pp.  96-98;  Schurer, 
p.  828. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE     RULE     OF     THE      SELEUCIDJE     IN     PALESTINE. — 
FIRST    APPEARANCE    OF    ROME    IN    THE    EAST. 

About  the  year  220  b.  c.  the  kingdom  of  the  Seleu- 
cid^e  at  Antioch  gained  a  decided  superiority  over  the 
Ptolemaic  kingdom  at  Alexandria.  This  revolution 
was  the  result  of  the  accession  of  a  very  remarkable 
sovereign,  Antiochus  III.,  rightly  surnamed  "the 
Great,"  who  seemed  to  revive  in  some  measure  the 
genius  of  Alexander.  What  the  kingdom  of  Anti- 
och needed  was  possession  of  Coelesyria,  Phoenicia, 
and  Palestine.  The  brilliant  campaign  of  218  put 
all  these  countries  into  the  hands  of  Antiochus.  But 
his  success  was  only  ephemeral.  The  following  year 
the  battle  of  Raphia  restored  Palestine  to  Egypt  for 
fifteen  years.  In  202  Antiochus  reconquered  it  more 
effectually  ;  the  battle  of  Paneas  (198)  may  be  taken 
approximately  as  the  date  when  Jewish  countries,  or 
those  under  Jewish  influence  during  the  tolerant 
dominion  of  the  Ptolemies,  passed  under  the  rule 
of  the  Seleucidœ,  which  was  far  more  stringent. 
There  were,  indeed,  several  later  changes  of  for- 
tune.    In  193  B.  c.  Palestine  again  fell  under  the 


230         HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL. 

dominion  of  Egypt,  as  the  marriage  portion  of 
the  daughter  of  Antiochus  ;  ^  but  the  die  was  cast. 
Jerusalem  for  fifty  years  was  to  receive  from  the 
shores  of  the  Orontes  electric  shocks  which  would 
rouse  her  from  her  torpor  into  ten  times  her  former 
energy. 

During  this  period,  when  the  country  seemed  rent 
in  pieces,  the  condition  of  the  populations  of  Pales- 
tine —  overrun  as  it  was  by  armies,  by  turns  defeated 
or  victorious  —  was  something  dreadful.!  A  chief 
object  of  the  war  was  to  make  slaves,  who  brought 
a  good  price  in  markets  along  the  Mediterranean. 
Demoralisation  was  extreme  ;  good  faith  was  almost 
lost.  Military  tacticians  were  for  a  space  masters 
of  the  world,  as  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies in  Italy.  There  was  no  petty  chief,  if  he 
thought  himself  a  man  of  some  ability  and  had 
a  few  mercenaries  at  his  command,  who  might  not 
hope  to  carve  out  for  himself  a  kingdom  peopled 
by  wretches  on  whom  he  could  lay  burdens.  In 
short,  the  condition  of  things  was  much  like  that 
in  the  fift-h  century,  when  barbarous  tribes  divided 
western  Europe,  without  heed  to  the  wishes  of  the 
native  population.  The  campaign  of  202  was  espe- 
cially disastrous  for  the  inhabitants  of  Coelesyria  and 
Judea.  The  Egyptian  general  Scopas  had  placed 
a  strong  garrison  in  Jerusalem,  where  the  Syrians 
besieged  it.     The  struggle  was  terrible.     The   con- 

*  This  is  found  in  Daniel  xi.  17. 
■j-  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xii.  iii.  3,  4. 


THE  SELEUCID^  IN  PALESTINE.  231 

servative  and  orthodox  party  seems  to  have  re- 
mained faithful  to  the  Lagidoe  ;  ^  but  the  Hierosoly- 
mites  among  the  common  people!  soon  went  over 
to  the  party  of  Antiochus^  and  helped  him  to  get 

rid  of  Scopas. 

It  was  said  that  Antiochus,  in  return  for  these 
services,  loaded  the  Jews  with  favours;  tliat  he 
embellished  their  Temple  and  enlarged  its  porches, 
and  granted  the  priests  what  they  desired  above  all 
things,  —  official  sanction  for  the  requirements  of 
their  law.  The  city  had  been  almost  deserted. 
Antiochus  repeopled  it,  and  set  his  prisoners  free.  § 

If  we  may  believe  certain  very  suspicious  documents 
cited  by  Josephus,||  the  confidence  of  Antiochus  the 
Great  in  the  loyalty  of  the  Jews  went  further  still- 
Being  doubtful  as  to  the  attachment  of  the  people 
of  Lydia  and  Phrygia,  he  is  said  to  have  given 
orders  to  transport  from  Mesopotamia  and  Babylon 
to  these  countries  two  thousand  Jewish  families  with 
all  belonging  to  them,T[  to  form  the  nucleus  of  an 
industrious  and  loyal  population.     This  is  extremely 

*  This  we  infer  from  Daniel  xi.  and  xii. 

t  "^n;?  ']fn£),  Daniel  xi.  14. 

X  Josephus  is  eager  to  prove  that  the  Jews  have  always  been  entirely- 
faithful  to  their  masters,  even  when  vanquished  ;  yet  he  is  every  time 
forced  to  admit  that  they  have  made  singular  haste  to  pass  over  to  the 
winning  party. 

§  Josephus,  as  above.  The  letter  of  Antiochus  is  probably  spurious^ 
but  the  situation  it  describes  is  real. 

11  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xii.  iii.  4. 

^  It  has  been  supposed  that  this  was  the  origin  of  the  manufacture 
of  carpets  (Ushak).  But  no  ;  according  to  Josephus  these  Jews  were 
all  agriculturists. 


232         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL. 

doubtful  ;  what  is  certain  is  that  the  Jews  retained 
a  very  kindly  remembrance  of  Antiochus  the  Great. 
He  took  his  place  later  as  one  of  the  princes  who 
had  conferred  privileges  upon  them,  and  certified  to 
their  fidelity. 

If  the  work  of  Antiochus  the  Great  had  proved 
permanent,  —  if  he  had  established  in  Syria  an  empire 
as  firm  as  the  Ottoman  empire  in  after  years,  with 
Antioch  for  its  capital,  —  the  religious  destiny  of  man- 
kind might  have  been  greatly  changed  ;  but  a  very 
important  event  was  looming  in  the  distance.  Dur- 
ing the  last  years  of  Antiochus  the  Great,  every 
magnetic  needle  in  the  East  seemed  disturbed.  A 
new  power  was  entering  on  the  world's  stage.  Rome, 
proud  of  having  humbled  Carthage,  was  resolved  that 
nothing  without  her  permission  should  thenceforth 
take  place  in  countries  bordering  on  the  Mediter- 
ranean. All  Greek  kingdoms  and  confederations 
became  virtually  subject  to  her  ;  ancient  democracy, 
daughter  of  Hellenism,  was  struck  dead.*  The  polit- 
ical work  of  Alexander  was  destroyed.  Greek  liber- 
alism, ruined  by  its  own  faults,  was  to  be  stranded 
for  two  thousand  years. 

Greece  first  taught  the  world  liberty  and  the  dig- 
nity of  man  ;  but  in  everything  she  created,  discipline 
was  wanting.  Her  ancient  republics  never  found 
the  way  of  escape  from  incurable  anarchy.  Boast- 
fulness,  sheer  folly,  and  the  rash  adventures  of  super- 
ficial politicians,  have  in  such  communities  too  great 

*  Daniel  xi.  18.     An  allusion  to  the  battle  of  Magnesia. 


THE  SELEUCID.E  IN  PALESTINE.  233 

advantage  over  serious  purpose,  good  sense,  and 
moral  scruple.  And  the  Greek,  always  a  man  of 
high  breeding  in  his  own  country,  appeared  before 
the  world  in  tlie  character  of  a  Macedonian  warrior, 
often  cruel,  —  as  it  was  in  the  French  Revolution, 
which  began  with  the  widest  sympathy  for  foreign- 
"ers,  and  ended  by  irritating  its  warmest  friends  by 
its  display  in  arms  and  its  vainglorious  soldiery. 

Up  to  this  time  nothing  had  ever  hinted  the 
immense  strength  Rome  was  now  exhibiting  to  the 
astonished  w^orld.  Her  military  display  was  not  extra- 
ordinarily great  ;  but  terrible  was  the  resolution,  the 
obstinacy,  the  energy,  which  were  felt  to  lie  behind 
those  legions,  —  those  ambassadors,  that  represented 
her  invincible  strength.  The  Senate  seemed  a  deity, 
far  off  and  hidden  from  sight,  whose  decrees  were 
carried  out  with  the  inflexibility  of  fate.  The  cool 
determination  of  her  aristocracy  and  the  self-sacrifice 
displayed  among  her  people  were  alike  admirable. 
Never  was  there  seen  less  of  philosophy,  more  of 
public  spirit,  —  in  other  words,  more  resignation  to 
inequality.  Never  once  did  the  heroes  of  these 
legions  ask  why  they  were  being  taken  to  the  ends 
of  the  world.  "  They  toil,  they  suffer,  —  from  want 
of  food,  from  want  of  fire,"  savs  a  Jewish  writer."^ 
Doubtless  they  did  so,  but  this  is  the  virtue  that 
history  rewards.  The  patrician  who  commands  these 
legions  may  be  the  least  lovable  of  men,  a  bitter  tory, 
a  bad  man,  stiff,  awkward,  and  hard-hearted,  ready 
*  See  vol.  iii.  pp.  401-404. 


234         HISTORY  OF   THE   PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL. 

to  become  a  robber  when  he  can  ;  but  what  of  that  ? 
He  does  the  work  of  God.  If  there  had  still  been 
prophets  in  the  dark  days,  those  who  had  called 
Nebuchadnezzar  the  servant  of  lahveh  would  have 
given  the  same  name  to  the  eagles  which  flashed 
to  right  or  left  like  the  thunderbolt,  fulfilling  their 
appointed  tasks. 

In  many  ways  the  legions,  though  they  knew  it 
not,  carried  progress  with  them, — which  is,  indeed, 
the  true  will  of  lahveh.  Almost  everywhere  through- 
out the  East  the  native  populations  were  weary  of 
these  Macedonian  dynasties.  The  vast  coalition, 
Antiochus  at  its  head,  had  at  bottom  nothing  national. 
The  Greeks  and  the  Syrians  had  never  coalesced  into 
one  nation,  like  the  Gauls  and  Franks  under  the  kings 
of  France.  The  energetic  resistance  Scipio  met  with 
was  from  the  troops  rather  than  from  the  people. 
In  general,  these  last  profited  from  the  preponderance 
of  Roman  rule.  Petty  monarchies,  like  that  which 
was  soon  to  arise  in  Judea,  could  not  have  existed 
if  the  rule  of  Antioch  had  still  been  held  in  respect. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  numberless  free  cities  of 
Syria,  whose  independence  began  about  125  B.  c, — 
that  is,  at  the  time  of  the  great  decline  of  the 
Seleucidoe.  Besides,  the  political  weakening  of  Hel- 
lenism did  not  lessen  its  influence  as  a  factor  in  civ- 
ilisation. The  diffusion  of  Greek  manners,  customs, 
and  speech  did  not  slacken  during  the  second  cen- 
tury before  Christ.  About  the  year  100  the  Phoe- 
nician  language   almost   disappears  ;   Greek  wholly 


THE  SELEUCID^  IN  PALESTINE.  235 

supplants  it  in  inscriptions.*  The  powerful  protecto- 
rate that  Rome  held  over  the  countries  of  the  East 
did  not  extend  to  intellectual,  moral,  or  religious 
matters.  In  these,  Rome  was  always  neutral.  She 
created  one  great  thing,  —  the  secular  State,  indiffer- 
ent to  all  besides  material  order.  In  those  ancient 
days,  at  least,  she  was  a  thousand  leagues  from 
any  idea  of  religious  persecution.  The  family  sacra 
and  respect  for  local  gods  never  entailed  such  grave 
consequences  as  did  the  assumed  revelation  of  an 
absolute  God,  for  whom  one  takes  up  arms  against 
all  the  world. 

Antiochus  was  not  always  so  wise.  These  Semitic 
gods  were  rich,  and  they  avenged  themselves  on 
those  who  laid  hands  upon  their  riches.  Antiochus, 
to  replenish  his  empty  treasury,  conceived  the  unfor- 
tunate idea  of  pillaging  a  Temple  of  Baal  in  Elymais, 
and  the  people  of  that  country  murdered  him 
(187).t  His  son  and  successor,  Seleucus  IV.  (Philo- 
pator),  was  accused  of  having  meditated  the  commis- 
sion of  a  similar  outrag-e  in  the  Temnle  at  Jerusalem, 
by  means  of  his  minister  Heliodorus.^  To  all 
appearance,  this  story  is  destitute  of  truth.  Relig- 
ious liberty  was  not  as  yet  openly  violated.  All 
else  the  Jews  suffered  patiently,  repairing  with  their 

*  A  bilingual  inscription  in  the  Piraeus,  Revue  archeoL,  January, 
1888,  pp.  5-7. 

t  Strabo,  xvi.  i.  18.   There  is  another  version  in  Aurelius  Victor. 

X  2  Maccabees  iii.  7,  &c.  (Compare  4  Mace,  iv.,  and  Daniel  xi. 
20.)  All  that  concerns  the  splendid  gifts  made  by  Seleucus  IV.  to  the 
Temple  at  Jerusalem  (2  Maccabees  iii.  3)  has  no  foundation. 


236         HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE    OF  ISRAEL. 

national  love  of  order  the  injustice  of  which  they 
were  victims,  and  making  the  best  of  the  public 
affronts  they  might  receive.  The  point  of  honour 
was  nothing  to  them.  Anything  could  be  borne 
provided  prayer  was  free,  and  incense  each  day  might 
ascend  before  lahveh. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

'     MIDDLE    CLASS. SACERDOTAL   NOBILITY. 

In  fact,  during  the  first  part  of  the  time  when  the 
Seleucidee  held  sway  in  Jerusalem,  men  of  piety  had 
little  to  complain  of.  Greek  fashions  were  making 
progress;  but  the  old  school,  the  grave  ''noble 
fathers  "  of  the  ancient  sort,  continued  to  flourish. 
The  high-priest  played  the  part  of  a  real  king,  set 
public  workâ  on  foot,  fortified  the  city,  and  prepared 
it  to  resist  a  siege.*  Nobody  dreamed,  however,  that 
such  a  city  had  any  military  value.  The  Greeks 
looked  on  Jerusalem  merely  as  a  Temple,  and  in 
keeping  with  the  etymology  of  that  period  wrote  its 
old  name  of  Jebus  as  if  its  first  syllable  were  Hiero 

The  Jew  was  above  all  things  a  pious  man,  but  he 
was  also  a  man  who  loved  order  ;  a  man  of  action, 
acquitting  himself  well  in  all  affairs  intrusted  to 
him  ;  :j:  excellent  for  every  kind  of  subordinate  work, 
on  the  one  condition  that  he  was  suffered  to  observe 

*  Ecclesiasticus  i.  1-5. 

t  To  Upbv  7rpo(Tayop€v6fjL€vov  'lepoaoXvfxa.  Polybius  quoted  by  Jose- 
phus,  Antiquities,  xii.  iii.  3. 

J  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xii.  xii.  4;  npoovfiiav  els  à  irapaKaKovvrai. 


238         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

his  Law  in  peace.  What  the  Torah  formed  with 
wonderful  success  was  a  well-regulated  hourgeoisie,  a 
middle  class,  pious  and  reasonable,  —  like  the  Pro- 
testant Puritans  in  England  and  America,  vehement 
defenders  of  the  Sabbath,  and  excellent  bankers. 
The  idea  of  rising  to  the  highest  rank  and  taking  a 
place  among  their  Greek  conquerors  was  beyond  the 
reach  of  such  a  man.  In  his  resigned  humility  he 
was  satisfied  to  enjoy  the  good  things  that  God 
accorded  him  in  return  for  his  faithful  observance  of 
the  Law.  The  Jew  never  dreams  of  worldly  honours, 
until  money  has  come  to  be  the  one  thing  in  the 
world,  and  a  substitute  for  the  great  prizes  that  in 
old  times  were  only  gained  in  war. 

It  was  not  that  there  were  not  Epicurean  Jews, 
voluptuous,  ambitious,  almost  void  of  religious  feeling. 
The  simplicity  of  Jewish  ideas  has  always  tended 
to  the  two  extremes.  An  atheist  in  Israel  touches 
elbows  with  the  fanatic.  It  is  in  the  families  of 
the  high-priests  that  we  most  find  these  scandals. 
The  money  that  passed  through  the  hands  of  pious 
sacrificers  made  them  rich,  almost  the  only  rich 
men  of  the  nation.  The  opinion  of  the  Jews  about 
nobility  —  that  the  only  nobility  was  that  of  the 
priesthood*  —  gave  them  great  facilities  for  rich 
marriages.  Sometimes  there  mingled  in  all  this  a 
sordid  avarice,  which  was  downright  robbery  of 
the  poor.  The  farming  of  taxes,  that  perpetual  run- 
ning  sore  of  the  East,  gave  rise  to  crying  abuses. 

*  Josephus,  Against  Apion^  i.  7. 


MIDDLE   CLASS.  — SACERDOTAL  NOBILITY.      239 

The  leading  men  in  each  province  contracted  under 
bonds  for  the  tribute  due  to  the  king  of  Egypt  or 
Syria,  made  slack  payment,  and  left  their  provinces 
exposed  to  outrage,  while  they  themselves  made 
scandalous  fortunes. 

The  high-priest  Onias  (second  or  third  of  that 
name)  kept  for  himself  the  tribute  collected  for 
the  overlord,  and  thereby  came  near  bringing  down 
upon  Jerusalem  the  greatest  suffering.*^  His  nephew 
Joseph,  son  of  Tobias,  a  man  skilful  in  intrigue, 
profiting  by  his  father's  faults,  insinuated  him- 
self into  the  good  graces  of  Ptolemy  by  base- 
ness and  buffoonery,  such  as  have  succeeded  with 
khédives  in  all  ages.  He  acquired  immense  riches, 
and  had  a  son  named  Hyrcanus,t  who  far  outdid 
his  father  in  rascality  and  sycophancy.  After  a 
life  full  of  adventure,  part  of  which  was  passed 
in  battles  with  the  Nabathean  Arabs,  Hyrcanus 
built  in  the  rock  near  Heshbon  a  fortified  place  of 
safety,  which  to  this  day  is  the  wonder  of  travellers.^ 
He  called  it  Souri,  or  "  my  rock,"  §  which  in  itself 
was  impious,  because  a  true  Jew  would  have  given 
the  name  Souri  to  God  alone.  He  had  not  time 
to  finish  this  luxurious  den  of  robbers.     We  can  see 

*  Josephus,  Antiquitieii,  xii.  iv.  This  episode  is  a  singular  one  in 
the  last  days  of  the  rule  of  the  Ptolemies,  and  is  in  strange  contrast 
with  other  documents  of  that  period  which  have  no  historical  value. 
Josephus  probably  found  it  in  some  family  records. 

t  A  nickname  (one  given  to  a  dog)  taken  from  the  district  Hyrcania 
(Mazenderan  or  Taberistan),  near  the  Caspian.     See  Pape. 

X  Now  Aaraq  el-Emir.     See  Vogué,  Temple  de  Jerusalem,  pp.  37-42. 

§  A  trace  of  this  name  is  preserved  in  "  Wadi-el-Syr." 


240         HISTORY  OF   THE   PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

how  even  there  fear  and  dread  pursued  him.  There 
are  covered  passages  and  holes  for  hiding  scooped 
out  in  the  rock,  so  that  he  might  be  safe  from  the 
most  cunning  treachery.  Hyrcanus  had  made  his 
fortune  by  Egyptian  favour;  but  seeing  that  the 
SeleucidEe  were  getting  firmly  established,  and  that 
their  rule  was  becoming  assured,  he  dreaded  lest 
he  should  be  given  up  to  the  vengeance  of  the  Arabs, 
and  killed  himself  about  the  year  175. 

For  a  Jew  to  commit  suicide  was  a  great  sign 
of  the  times.  In  the  view  of  ancient  lahvism  it 
was  both  a  crime  and  an  absurdity.  Hyrcanus  son 
of  Joseph  was  no  doubt  one  of  those  Jews  who  had 
imbibed  Greek  ideas  with  Greek  manners.  Never 
had  suicides  been  so  numerous  as  now.  Political 
opinion  was  merciless,  and  its  sentence  was  generally 
anticipated."*  Hyrcanus  is  the  Jew  materialist,  whose 
life  is  summed  up  in  "  vanity  of  vanities."  His 
unfinished  palace  in  the  desert  is  like  a  page  of 
Job,  —  a  lamentation  over  life  ;  a  reproach  to  God, 
who,  careful  only  of  his  solitary  grandeur,  has  made 
human  destiny  so  mean,  so  absurd,  so  miserable. 

May  not  Ecclesiastes  have  been  written  at  this 
time  ?  It  is  certain  that  Aaraq  el-Emir  is  the  very 
spot  wherein  the  Koheleth  shows  all  its  truth, 
all  its  value.  Hyrcanus  must  have  been  a  man 
especially  fitted  to  comprehend  the  state  of  mind 
of  a  disillusioned  Solomon.  But  let  us  wait.  Fana- 
ticism has  not  yet  set  on   fire   the   Jewish   blood. 

*  As  in  the  case  of  Hannibal,  Mithridates,  &c. 


MIDDLE   CLASS,  — SACERDOTAL  NOBILITY.      241 

During  the  two  centuries  which  yet  separate  us 
from  Jesus,  religious  indifference  will  play  a  large 
part  in  Israel;  not  until  the  first  century  of  our 
era  will  the  lukewarm  be  cast  out.  Agrippas  and 
Hanans  will  then  have  no  place  in  Jewish  life. 
Between  the  Christian  and  the  zealot  no  space  will 
be  left  for  the  moderate  man. 

We  need  not  be  surprised  that  even  amid  such 
pious  surroundings  great  abuses  flourished  without 
provoking  much  reaction  in  the  higher  ranks  of  the 
priesthood.  Very  religious  times  and  very  religious 
countries  are  apt  to  suffer  great  scandals  among 
their  clergy,  without  being  greatly  shocked  by  them. 
The  clergy  are  much  more  lax  in  pious  countries 
than  in  a  public  of  unbelievers.  The  Middle  Age 
saw  enormities  of  simony,  indulgences,  masses  for 
the  dead,  and  was  not  induced  to  revolt  against 
the  Church  as  by  law  established.  That  Temple 
where  everything  was  for  sale,  its  vile  pontiffs 
(colianim)  lovers  of  pleasure,  atheists,  and  material- 
ists, who  preyed  upon  the  piety  of  the  faithful, 
cheated  God,  and  took  for  themselves  all  the  clear 
profit  of  the  sacrifices,  had  not  as  yet  provoked 
any  strong  remonstrances.  The  people  believed  God 
considered  himself  honoured  by  the  homage  of  such 
rascals,  and  money  was  brought  them  without  the 
slightest  misgiving.  A  pious  man  is  apt,  uninten- 
tionally, to  attribute  strange  tastes  to  the  Divinity  ; 
one  might  suppose,  to  see  how  piety  sometimes  rea- 
sons, that  nonsense  is  a  kind  of  sacrifice  made  to  God 

VOL.  IV.  —  16 


242         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

of  what  he  values  most,  —  an  act  of  homage,  which 
sets  at  naught  all  exercise  of  private  judgment. 

There  were,  besides,  among  the  higher  priests 
some  very  respectable  men,  and  that  sufficed  to 
maintain  the  honour  of  the  priesthood.  The  old 
men,  the  Council  of  the  Seventy  (Sanhedrim),  gov- 
erned. It  is  about  this  time  that  Jewish  tradition 
places  the  Great  Synagogue,  a  somewhat  mythical 
institution,*  around  which  grouped  themselves,  as 
round  a  primitive  church,  memories  of  an  orthodox 
transmission  of  the  Torah.  Asou  seiag  lattora, 
"  make  a  hedge  about  the  Law,"  build  up  around  it 
walls  of  defence,  was  in  brief  the  religious  teaching 
of  that  period. t  All  private  speculation  was  for- 
bidden ;  no.  revival  of  the  prophetic  spirit  was  fore- 
told by  any  sign. 

The  high-priest,  Simon  the  Just,  is  considered  to 
have  been  the  last  member  of  the  Great  Synagogue. | 
He  left  behind  him  a  memory  of  high  honour.  §  He 
is  almost  the  last  Biblical  figure  seen  against  the  dark 
background  of  sacerdotalism,  before  the  days  of  the 
great  debasement  of  Judaism  under  the  Asmoneans 
and  the  Herods.||     To  him  the  Temple  owed  many 

*  See  Derenbourg,  p.  29,  &c.,  resuming  and  correcting  Herzfeld. 

f  Pirké  ahoth,  chap.  i.  t  Pirké  aboth,  chap.  i. 

§  The  date  of  Simon  the  Just  has  been  made  uncertain  only  by  the 
blunder  of  Josephus  (Ant.  xii.  ii.  4),  who  made  a  mistake  of  a  cen- 
tury. Simon  the  Just  lived  about  190.  The  pompous  eulogy  made 
of  him  by  Jesus,  son  of  Sirach,  was  undoubtedly  written  by  a  contem- 
porary. See  Breviarium  Philonis  under  Antiochus  the  Great;  Deren- 
bourg, p.  46,  &c.,  resuming  Herzfeld. 

II  Ecclesiasticus  1.     Compare  Derenbourg,  p.  47,  &c. 


MIDDLE   CLASS.  — SACERDOTAL  NOBILITY.     243 

embellishments,  and  the  city  also  many  public  works, 
especially  such  as  concerned  its  water  supply*  He 
was  in  fact  a  religious  politician,  if  it  be  true  that 
his  words  were,  "  The  world  rests  upon  three  things, 
—  the  Torah,  worship,  and  good  works."  t  The  ac- 
counts we  have  of  him  are  that  he  was  a  man  of 
gentle  piety,  opposed  to  the  exaggerations  of  mysti- 
cism. :j:  The  majesty  with  which  he  exercised  his 
functions  in  religious  w^orship  was  long  remembered. 
The  son  of  Sirach  gives  us  the  most  perfect  picture 
we  possess  of  the  Hierosolymite  worship  of  those 
times  :  §  — 

How  was  he  honoured  in  the  midst  of  the  people 

In  his  coming  out  of  the  sanctuary! 
He  was  as  the  morning  star  coming  out  of  a  cloud, 

And  as  the  moon  at  the  full! 
As  the  sun  shining  upon  the  Temple  of  the  Most  High, 

And  as  the  rainbow  giving  light  in  the  bright  clouds; 
As  the  flower  of  roses  in  the  spring  of  the  year, 

As  lilies  by  the  rivers  of  water. 
And  as  the  branches  of  the  frankincense-tree 

In  the  time  of  summer; 
As  fire,  and  incense  in  the  censer. 

And  as  a  vessel  of  beaten  gold  set  with  precious  stones; 
As  a  fair  olive-tree  budding  with  fruit, 

And  as  a  cypress-tree  which  groweth  up  to  the  clouds,  — 
Was  he  when  he  put  on  the  robe  of  honour, 

And  was  clothed  with  the  perfection  of  glory. 

*  Ecclesiasticus,  1.  3,  4.  y^oKKÔ^  is  certainly  an  error.  It  should 
be  Ad/cKos. 

t  Pirké  ahoth,  chap.  i.  2. 

X  See  the  pretty  story  of  Nedarim  and  Nazir  (Derenbourg), 
pp.  51,  52. 

§  Ecclesiasticus  1.  5,  &c. 


244         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

When  he  went  up  to  the  holy  altar  * 

He  made  the  garment  of  holiness  honourable  ; 
When  he  took  the  portions  from  the  priest's  hands 

He  himself  stood  by  the  hearth  of  the  altar, 
Compassed  with  his  brethren  round  about  t 

As  a  young  cedar  in  Libanus  ;  \ 
And  as  palm-trees  compassed  they  him  round  about. 

So  w^ere  all  the  sons  of  Aaron  in  their  glory, 
Holding  the  oblations  of  the  Lord  in  their  hands 

Before  all  the  congregation  of  Israel. 
And,  finishing  the  service  of  the  altar 

That  he  might  adorn  the  offering  of  the  Most  High,  the 
Almighty, 
He  stretched  out  his  hand  to  the  cup, 

And  poured  out  of  the  blood  of  the  grape. 
He  poured  out  at  the  foot  of  the  altar  a  sweet-smelling  savour 

Unto  the  most  high  King  of  all. 
Then  shouted  the  sons  of  Aaron, 

And  sounded  the  silver  trumpets, 
And  made  a  great  noise  to  be  heard 

For  a  remembrance  before  the  Most  High. 
Then  all  the  people  together  hasted 

And  fell  down  to  the  earth  upon  their  faces, 
To  worship  their  Lord  God  Almighty, 

Imploring  the  Most  High. 
The  singers  also  sang  praises  with  their  voices  ; 

With  a  great  variety  of  sounds  was  made  great  melody; 
And  the  people  besought  the  Lord,  the  Most  High, 

By  prayer  before  him  that  is  merciful, 
Till  the  solemnity  of  the  Lord  was  ended, 

And  they  had  finished  his  service. 
Then  he  went  down,  and  lifted  up  his  hands 

Over  the  whole  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel, 

*  He  is  certainly  speaking  of  the  Great  Day  of  Atonement.  See 
Derenbourg,  p.  49,  note. 

f  The  lévites  were  often  called  D'nN.  Psalm  cxxxiii.  and  the 
Book  of  Kings. 

X  Read  Kihptùv,    See  Fritzsche,  Handhuch,  p.  299. 


MIDDLE   CLASS.  — SACERDOTAL  NOBILITY.      245 

To  give  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  with  his  lips, 

And  to  glorify  and  rejoice  in  his  name. 
And  they  bowed  themselves  down  to  worship  a  second  time, 

That  they  might  receive  a  blessing  from  the  Most  High.* 

The  little  Mishna  treatise  Pirke  aboth  begins  a  list 
of  doctors  of  the  Law  in  Palestine  with  the  name  of 
Simon  the  Just  ;  its  list,  however,  belongs  for  the 
most  part  to  the  days  of  the  xismoneans.t  Each 
doctor  has  appended  to  his  name  a  sentence  with 
which  it  is  supposed  he  was  familiar.  Trivialities 
are  mixed  up  with  elevated  sentiments.  There  are 
echoes  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  amons:  them. 
Antigonus  of  Soco,  who  seems  to  have  lived  about 
the  time  of  Antiochus  the  Great,  was  most  assuredly 
a  man  of  wondrous  wisdom,  if  he  really  said  :  "  Be 
not  like  slaves  who  serve  their  master  in  hope  of 
receiving  a  reward  :  but  be  like  those  slaves  who 
serve  their  master  without  looking  for  a  recompense, 
and  the  dew  of  Heaven  will  rest  upon  you."  | 

*  From  the  authorized  English  version,  which  is  almost  identical 
with  M.  Kenan's  French  translation.  —  Tr. 

t  There  are  other  similar  lists.  See  Mishna,  Pea,  ii.  6.  See  Deren- 
bourg,  p.  33,  note. 

J  Pirke  aboth,  chap.  1. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

JESUS,    SON   OF   SIRACH. 

The  clearest  Israelitish  voice  that  has  reached  our 
ears  from  that  period  is  that  of  a  Hierosolymite 
named  Jesus,  son  of  Sirach,*  who  about  the  year 
180  B.  c.t  wrote  a  book  of  Wisdom,  in  imitation 
of  the  ancient  books  believed  to  be  by  Solomon. 
With  allowance  made  for  a  few  blemishes,  this  book 
does  honour  to  the  age  and  to  the  race  from  which 
it  sprang.  It  is  a  code  of  maxims  for  an  honest 
man  of  the  middle  classes,  taking  in  a  high  degree 
a  practical  view  of  life,  and  not  in  the  least  misled 
by  supernatural  fancies.  Wisdom  consists  in  fear- 
ing God  and  in  keeping  his  commandments.  He 
who  does  not  believe  in  God  is  a  fool  ;  for  God's 
justice  may  be  seen  daily  in  striking  instances,  — 

*  The  Hebrew  text  is  lost.  The  Greek  version  made  by  the 
author's  grandson  about  the  year  130  b.c.  is  very  poor.  The  same 
version,  to  which  glosses  have  been  added,  is  given  us  in  the  Latin 
Vulgate.  The  Syriac  version,  a  translation  from  the  Hebrew,  is  in 
many  places  better  than  either  the  Greek  or  the  Latin.  See  Grieger 
in  the  Zeitschrift  der  D.  M.  G.  1858,  p.  536,  &c. 

t  Shown  in  the  Prologue  of  the  Greek  translator.  Euergetes 
["benefactor"]  is  here  Physcon. 


JESUS,  SON  OF  SIRACH.  247 

things  that  leave  no  room  to  doubt^  if  we  give  heed 
to  them. 

Of  this  we  could  wish  the  author  to  bring  for- 
ward proofs,  to  summon  his  witnesses  ;  but  this, 
unfortunately,  he  has  not  done.  He  insists  that 
lack  of  wisdom  is  always  punished;  that  God  is 
good  to  men  of  virtue,  and  severe  only  with  the 
evil."^  But  he  gives  us  no  proof  that  it  is  so.  The 
punishment  of  the  wicked  is  that  they  sometimes 
fall  into  misfortune.  But  what  becomes  of  the 
righteous  ?  The  son  of  Sirach  thinks  he  has  ob- 
served that  riches  ill-gained  never  profit  the  gainer. 
But  he  also  owns  that  sometimes  the  wicked  man 
succeeds  ;  for  he  implores  the  good  man  not  to  be 
envious  of  his  deceptive  prosperity.!  The  author, 
being  himself  keenly  alive  to  the  value  of  public 
opinion,  represents  to  the  wicked  that  one  of  their 
punishments  will  be  the  shame  that  they  will  feel 
when  all  their  misdeeds  are  laid  open  and  their 
hidden  vices  are  revealed  in  the  synagogue,  or,  if  you 
like  it  better,  before  the  eyes  of  men.:j:  That  seems 
but  a  small  thing.  In  truth,  the  theory  of  rewards 
and  punishments,  as  presented  by  the  son  of  Sirach, 
has  made  no  advance  since  the  earliest  days  when 
Israel  began  to  think  for  itself. 

*  Chapters  xvi.  xxiii.  &c.  The  Greek  text  having  many  omis- 
sions and  transpositions,  what  we  quote  will  have  its  figures  taken 
from  the  Latin,  except  where  we  say  otherwise.  [The  fiçrures  do  not 
always  correspond  with  those  in  the  English  version.  —  Tr.] 

f  Chap.  ix.  16.     Cf.  Psalm  Ixxiii. 

X  Chap.  i.  27. 


248         HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 

Ideas,  especially  those  concerning  Sheol,  have  not 
been  altered. *"  "  The  fire  and  the  worm,"  which 
the  author  has  borrowed  from  the  Second  Isaiah,t 
are  still  only  figm^es  of  speech.^  For  one  moment 
a  gleam  of  hope  seems  to  penetrate  the  nether  regions. 
Wisdom  speaks  of  going  down  to  illuminate  the 
dead  who  are  in  the  other  world  still  hoping  in  the 
Lord.§ 

But,  alas  !  this  passage  was  not  written  by  the 
son  of  Sirach  ;  it  is  an  interpolation  after  the  grea.t 
crisis  in  the  days  of  the  Maccabees,  which  soon 
changed  all  the  ideas  of  Israel  concerning  the 
final  destiny  of  man  and  immortality^ 

Never  was  there  a  smaller  dose  of  religion  ad- 
ministered than  is  done  by  this  pious  layman,  two 
centuries  before  the  time  of  Jesus.  "  Ecclesiastes  " 
itself  is  not  more  free  from  spiritual  ideas.  Sacrifices 
and  pious  observances  are  with  him  of  little  value  ; 
it  is  an  honest  life  which  is  everything. ||  Priests 
must  be  paid  very  scrupulously,^  but  outside  of  the 
Temple  priests  have  no  religious  precedence.  Sacred 
history  may  be  filled  with  marvels,  but  the  author 
seems  to  think  that  in  his  day  the  fountain  of 
prophecy  and  miracle  is  dried  up. 

*  Chap.  xli.  4  (Latin  7,  wanting  in  the  Syriac). 

t  Chap.  vii.  19.     Compare  Isaiah  Ixvi.  21.     See  vol.  iii.  p.  194. 

X  Compare  Mark  ix.  13,  &c. 

§  Chap.  xxiv.  4.5.  Penetraho  omnes  inferiorea  partes  tpiTce  et  inspiciam 
omnes  donnientes  et  illuminabo  omnes  sperantes  in  Domino.  This  is 
wanting  both  in  the  Greek  and  Syriac.     It  is  possibly  Christian. 

II  Chap,  xxxiv,  21,  &c.  xxxv.     Compare  vii.  11. 

T[  Chap.  vii.  33-35. 


JESUS,  SON  OF  SIRACH.  249 

Science  and  philosophy,  so  brilliantly  cultivated 
by  the  Greeks,  are  unknown  to  Jesus,  the  son  of 
Sirach.  The  science  of  the  Hebrew  sofer^  who  was 
versed  only  in  his  old  Scriptures,*"  seemed  enough 
to  him.  The  earth  and  the  heavens  have  been 
marvellously  made,t  but  the  son  of  Sirach  stops 
there  ;  his  superficial  admiration  does  not  induce 
him  to  examine  into  them.  His  ideas  on  physics 
have  made  no  progress  since  the  days  of  Job.  Curi- 
osity on  such  subjects  he  deems  useless  and  dan- 
gerous.^ Medicine  alone  among  the  sciences  may 
be  good,  but  prayer  is  better.  §  All  that  takes 
place  in  the  universe  is  the  direct  work  of  God, 
w4:iose  object  in  all  things  is  to  do  good  to  the  good, 
and  evil  to  the  wicked.  ||  All  things  considered, 
the  lot  of  man  is  sad.  The  philosophy  of  life  pro- 
fessed by  the  son  of  Sirach  does  not  greatly  differ 
from  that  of  Ecclesiastes.  All  is  vain,  fragilç, 
hollow,  and  must  pass  away,  except  God.^y 

Prosperity  and  adversity,  life  and  death,** 
Poverty  and  riches,  come  from  the  Lord. 

The  gift  of  God  remaineth  with  the  godl}'', 
And  his  favour  bringeth  prosperity  forever. 

There  is  that  waxeth  rich  by  his  wariness  and  pinching, 
And  this  is  the  portion  of  his  reward  when  he  saith, 

*  Chap,  xxxix.  1,  &c. 

f  Chap.  xHi.  15,  &c.  ;  xUii. 

X  Chap.  iii.  22-26. 

§  Chap,  xxviii.  1-15,  —  a  shade  of  h'ony. 

II   Chap,  xxiii.  ;  xxxix.,  end. 

If  Chap,  xl.;  xli.  1-4. 

**  Chap.  xl.  14,  &c. 


250         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

*^  I  have  found  rest,  and  now  will  eat 
Continually  of  my  goods  that  I  have  acquired." 

And  yet  he  knoweth  not  what  time  shall  come  upon  him, 
And  that  he  must  leave  those  things  to  others,  and  die. 

Be  steadfast  therefore  in  thy  covenant,   and   be    conversant 

therein, 
And  wax  old  in  thy  work. 

Marvel  not  at  the  success  of  sinners. 

But  trust  in  the  Lord,  and  abide  in  thy  labour. 

For  it  is  an  easy  thing  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord 
On  the  sudden  to  make  a  poor  man  rich. 

The  blessing  of  the  Lord  is  in  the  reward  of  the  godly, 
And  suddenly  he  maketh  his  blessing  to  flourish. 

Say  not,  What  profit  is  there  in  my  service? 
And  what  good  things  shall  I  have  hereafter? 

Again  say  not,  I  have  enough,  and  possess  many  things, 
And  what  evil  can  come  to  me  hereafter  ? 

In  the  day  of  prosperity  there  is  a  forgetfulness  of  affliction  ; 
And  in  the  day  of  affliction  there  is  no  more  remembrance 
of  prosperity. 

For  it  is  an  easy  thing  for  the  Lord 

In  the  day  of  death  to  reward  a  man  according  to  his  ways. 

The  affliction  of  an  hour  maketh  a  man  forget  pleasure, 
And  in  his  end  his  deeds  shall  be  discovered. 

Judge  none  blessed  before  death; 

For  a  man  shall  be  known  in  his  children. 


This  is  still  the  same  repeated  balancing  of 
contradictions  that  we  find  in  the  Book  of  Job.  It 
contains  something,  however,  that  we  do  not  find 
in  Job,  —  namely,  that  an  hour  of  suffering  or  enjoy- 
ment  at  the   time  of  death  may  counterpoise   the 


JESUS,  SON  OF  SIRACH.  251 

entire  life,  and  set  right  the  balance  of  divine  justice. 
This  is  admirable.  But  before  long  this  compensat- 
ing hour  between  the  life  of  trial  and  death  will 
prove  inadmissible.  The  martyr  puts  to  shame  the 
old  Hebraic  theory.  Who  could  say  that  the  Jewish 
hero,  who  endured  the  most  cruel  death  rather  than 
prove  faithless  to  the  Law,  had  his  recompense  in 
this  world  ?  The  hour  of  reparation  must  neces- 
sarily be  put  beyond  the  grave.  And  from  that 
moment  the  gulf  was  crossed.  The  dogma  of 
rewards  and  punishments  in  a  life  to  come,  which 
the  old  sages  would  never  accept  at  any  cost,  made 
its  victorious  entry  into  the  mind  of  Israel. 

The  triumph  of  Jesus,  the  son  of  Sirach,  is  in 
his  code  of  maxims  for  the  middle  classes.  His 
is  wisdom  after  the  pattern  of  Franklin  ;  and  that 
is  the  way  this  book,  a  commonplace  one  in  itself, 
has  been  twenty  times  more  powerful  in  the 
world  than  books  that  are  greatly  its  superior. 
Very  severe  home  discipline  braces  family  life,  —  as 
in  Rome,  or  in  Sparta.  The  author  is  austere  in 
the  extreme  ;  not  only  does  he  insist  on  strict  mon- 
ogamy, though  the  Torah  allows  a  man  several 
wives  :  any  frailty  on  man's  part  he  finds  worthy  of 
condeumation.*  The  family  is  founded  on  honour 
for  the  father  ;  t  filial  piety  will  insure  long  life  ;  an 
ungrateful  son  is  a  monster.  The  mother  is  also  to 
be  honoured,  or  rather  to  be  treated  with  consid- 
eration :   her  position  in  the  family  is  a  subordinate 

*  Chap.  xli.  27.  t  Chap.  iii. 


252         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

one.*  Daughters  are  to  be  strictly  guarded.!  In 
general,  the  son  of  Sirach  puts  little  confidence  in 
the  virtue  of  women.  He  neither  loves  them  nor 
esteems  them.|  While  admitting  exceptions,  he 
finds  them,  in  general,  unbearable,  quarrelsome, 
greedy  ;  they  are  scolds  and  scandal-mongers.  They 
need  to  be  scrupulously  watched.  The  very  best  of 
them  should  be  kept  under  lock  and  key.§  All  the 
troubles  of  men  come  to  them  through  women  ;  and 
the  son  of  Sirach  draws  the  conclusion  from  the 
first  chapters  of  Genesis  that  through  woman  death 
entered  into  the  world.  || 

The  part  played  by  the  father  in  family  life  is 
thus  made  a  melancholy  one,  full  of  dangers,  full 
of  cares. ^  At  home  he  must  always  be  grave. 
He  must  never  show  his  daughter  a  smiling  face  ;  ** 
and  he  must  never  caress  his  children,  play  with 
them,  or  laugh  with  them. ft  A  child  must  be,  from 
the  very  first,  curbed  by  violence  %%  and  daily  sub- 
jected to  blows.  Children's  natural  gaiety  and  all 
their  little  tricks  are  evil.  They  must  be  humbled, 
and  kept  down  sternly  by  the  rod.§§ 

Separation   between   men  and  women  in  such  a 

*  MijTpoç  wàlvas  firj  èniKââr}  (vii.  27)  ;  Greek  :  Forget  not  the  sorrows 
[birthpangs]  of  thy  mother. 

t  Chap.  vii.  26,  &c.  ;  xxvi.  13;  xlii.  9-11. 

X  Chap.  vii.  26-28;  xxiv.  xxv.  xxvi.;  xxxvi.  23,  &c.  ;  xlii. 

§  Chap.  xlii.  6,  7.  ||  Chap.  xxv.  33. 

IF  Est  tibljilia,  &c.  (vii.  24,  25). 
**  Chap.  vii.  26.  ft  Chap.  xxx.  9,  10. 

Xt  KajxyJAov  fK  veorrjToç  top  Tpâxr}\ov  avrâv  (chap.  vii.  23). 
§§  Chap.  xxii.  6;  xxiii.  2;  xxx.  1;  xlii.  .5. 


JESUS,   SON  OF  SIRACH.  253 

home  life  was  necessarily  complete.  The  ideal  of 
the  son  of  Sirach  is  realised  at  this  day  in  any 
rigorous  Mussulman  village.  The  man  of  wisdom, 
as  the  son  of  Sirach  paints  him,  is  a  Mussulman 
with  his  grave  carriage,"*^  careful  above  all  to  pre- 
serve his  respectability,  clean  in  his  person,  sensitive 
as  to  his  reputation,  visiting  none  but  people  as 
punctilious  as  himself,  paying  great  attention  to 
his  guests,  a  man  of  moderate  opinions,  of  minute 
ideas,  if  I  may  so  express  myself,  t  He  is  a  faithful 
friend. I  His  deportment  is  modest  ;  what  he  hates 
most  are  the  flippant  manners  of  men  of  the  world, 
their  talkativeness,  and  their  proud  bearing.  He 
shuns  the  company  of  men  of  fashion  and  of  rich 
men  with  a  supercilious  air.§  To  offer  resistance 
to  men  in  power  is  as  useless  as  trying  to  stem  a 
current  ;  ||  a  wise  man  keeps  out  of  their  way  : 
he  does  not  care  for  offices,  he  lives  by  his  labour, 
happy  in  being  neither  poor  nor  rich,  and  equally 
removed  from  avarice  and  prodigality.  Like  the 
Ecclesiast,  he  does  not  object  to  giving  himself  occa- 
sionally a  good  time,  knowing  that  in  Sheol  there 
will  be  no  pleasure.^  But  all  excess  is  hateful  to 
him  :  wine  is  an  excellent  thing,  if  drunk  with 
moderation  ;  but  it  is  perhaps  the  saddest  cause  of 
troubles  and  of  follies.^* 

*  Chap,  xxxii. 

t  Chap.  ix.  22  (Greek)  ;  xii.  ;  xxi.  23,  &c. 

X  Chap.  vi.  §  Chap.  xiii. 

II  Chap.  iv.  26.  ^  Chap.  xiv.  16,  17.     Read  rpvc^jji/. 

**  Chap.  xxxi.  22,  &c. 


254         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

This  hoiirgeois  aristocrat  does  not  like  to  look  upon 
the  poor,  but  he  considers  it  one  of  the  fundamen- 
tal principles  of  religion  to  be  benevolent  to  them. 
To  give  alms  is  a  duty.*  But,  as  things  are,  the 
division  of  classes  seems  to  him  to  result  in  a  struggle 
to  the  death  between  them.f  The  ills  of  humanity 
are  mitigated  by  the  good  works  of  the  godly  man, 
who  is  assiduous  in  visiting  the  sick,  helpful  to  the 
weak,  kind  to  his  servants,  and  ready  to  forgive 
injuries.  %  This,  it  may  be  seen,  is  almost  the  entire 
moral  teaching  of  the  Gospels,  needing  only  the 
strong  upward  flight  that  Jesus  gave  it.  The  proper 
virtue  of  humility  is  already  indicated.  The  quiet, 
sober,  well-behaved  man,  who  governs  his  tongue, 
who  never  swears,  §  who  never  speaks  a  coarse  or 
vulgar  word,  who  gives  up  to  his  adversary  rather 
than  quarrel  with  him,||  shall  be  master  of  the 
world.  This  is  the  religion  of  the  respectable,  the 
well-to-do,  the  man  of  right  balance.  The  ungodly 
man  is  a  worldling  and  a  free  liver  ;  he  talks  loud, 
his  laugh  is  uproarious.  The  godly  man  is  humble, 
poor,  wise,  and  industrious  ;  his  ways  are  diametrically 
opposed  to  the  vanity  of  the  worldling.  He  loves 
agriculture  Tj  and  useful  labour.  Avarice  is  an 
absurdity,**  and  great  riches  are  little  profit  in  the 
end.tt   To  praise  a  man  for  his  wealth,  his  handsome 

*  Chap.  iv.  vii.  ^EXcrjixoavvrj  in  the  sense  of  alms,  vii.  10. 
t  Chap.  xiii.  22,  &c.  %  Chap,  xxviii.  xxix.  ;  xxxi.  31-33. 

§  Chap,  xxiii.  7-14.  ||  Chap.  viii. 

^  Chap.  vii.  16.  **  Chap.  x.  30. 

If  Chap,  xiv. 


JESUS,   SON  OF  SIRACH.  255 

person,  or  his  clothes  is  mere  frivolity.  A  poor  man 
who  has  learning  and  good  behaviour  is  indeed  a 
pearl  among  men.*  We  may  easily  observe  in  all 
this  an  analogy  to  the  ideas  of  the  Jansenist  })Our' 
geoisie  in  France  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries. 

Of  course,  the  son  of  Sirach  has  never  a  doubt  as 
to  the  lawfulness  of  slavery.  In  all  that  concerns 
the  manner  of  treatins;  the  slave  he  is  sometimes 
very  indulgent,!  sometimes  very  harsh,:):  and  even 
more  cruel  than  the  author  of  Proverbs.  § 

Fodder,  a  wand,  and  burdens  are  for  the  ass  ; 
And  bread,  correction,  and  work  are  for  a  servant. 

If  thou  set  thy  servant  to  labour,  thou  shalt  find  rest  ; 
But  if  thou  let  him  go  idle,  he  shall  seek  liberty. 

A  yoke  and  a  collar  do  bow  the  neck; 

So  are  tortures  and  torments  for  an  evil  servant. 

Send  him  to  labour  that  he  be  not  idle, 
For  idleness  teacheth  much  evil. 

Set  him  to  work,  as  is  fit  for  him  ; 

If  he  be  not  obedient,  put  on  more  heavy  fetters. 

But  be  not  excessive  towards  any, 
And  without  discretion  do  nothing.  || 

Although  the  synagogue  is  not  directly  mentioned 
by  the  son  of   Sirach  as  a  separate  building,^  the 

*  Chap.  X.  29,  30  ;  xi.  1,  &c.  f  Chap.  vii.  22,  &c. 

X  Chap,  xxxiii.  25,  &c.  (Greek,  xxx.)  xlii.  6,  7. 

§  Proverbs  xxix.  19. 

II  The  three  following  verses  apply  in  case  a  man  has  only  one  slave 
(see  the  Syriac),  in  which  case  he  becomes  a  sort  of  brother.  The 
Greek  text  is  doubtful. 

^  Passages  like  xxiii.  34,  xxxviii.  37,  show  the  transition  (see  the 
Greek,  ed.  Fritzsche). 


256         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

ideas  and  customs  that  belonged  to  it  already  exist. 
Reprimands,  false  reports,  and  gossip  flourish,  as  they 
will  in  every  community,*  —  I  was  about  to  say,  as 
they  do  in  every  convent.  At  any  rate,  the  state  of 
religion  described  by  the  son  of  Sirach  comes  nearer 
to  pure  religion  than  anything  before  his  day.  There 
is  no  sacrifice,  no  augur.  He  puts  no  faith  in  dreams. 
His  worship  is  that  of  an  enlightened  man,  who 
places  justice  and  honesty  above  everything.!  With 
his  looks  always  cheerful, |  his  accounts  always  bal- 
anced, §  such  a  Jew  will  effect  a  peaceful  conquest  of 
the  world.  He  may,  indeed,  but  only  for  form's 
sake,  recall  the  grand  hopes  held  out  by  the  Prophets, 
or  pray  for  the  realization  of  the  promises  made  to 
Israel,  or  speak  of  a  day  when  the  Gentiles  shall 
recognize  Adonai  as  their  God-H  His  admiration 
for  the  great  men  of  Jewish  story  ^  is  wholly  retro- 
spective. The  son  of  Sirach  is  a  man  well  satisfied. 
Like  the  author  of  the  KoheletJi,  he  is  a  modern  Jew, 
useful  to  the  society  in  which  he  lives,  getting  his 
living  out  of  his  surroundings,  resigned  to  the  vanity 
of  all  things,  and  not  unwilling  to  enjoy  the  passing 
hour,  because  he  knows  nothing  of  the  infinite  in 
which  it  is  engulfed.  Of  such  men  is  not  born  the 
kingdom  of  God.     The  son  of  Sirach  is  the  forerun- 

*  Chap.  xix.  13;  xx.  1,  &c. 

t  Read  attentively  chapters  xxxiv.  xxxv.  (xxxi.-xxxii.). 

X  Chap.  XXX.,  2d  part. 

§  Chap,  xlii.,  init.     Comp.  chap.  xxix. 

II  Chap,  xxxvi.,  the  whole. 

^  Chap.  xliv.  1. 


JESUS,   SON  OF  SIRACH.  257 

ner  of  a  Mendelssohn,  virtuous  and  modest  ;  or  of  a 
Rothschild  of  an  older  day,  growing  great  by  good 
order  and  honesty,  shaming  those  who  live  riotously, 
and  who  aim  to  dazzle  the  world.  Say  not  that  in  all 
this  there  is  no  heroism,  and  that  out  of  such  a  life 
will  never  come  an  enthusiast  or  a  martyr.  In  the 
heart  of  a  Jew  are  many  little  leaves  folded  down 
closely  one  over  the  other.  The  son  of  Sirach  wrote 
ten  or  fifteen  years  only  before  the  time  of  the  Mac- 
cabees, two  hundred  years  only  before  the  birth  of 
Jesus. 

The  "Wisdom"  of  Jesus,  the  son  of  Sumach,  had 
great  success  in  Jerusalem,  and  its  text  w^as  long 
preserved.*  About  the  year  130  b.  c.  the  grandson 
of  the  author,  having  been  carried  into  Egypt,  was  a 
witness  of  the  great  movement  which  had  turned  all 
the  Hebrew  books  into  Greek  ;  and,  to  complete  the 
series,  he  translated  his  grandfather's  work.  But  it 
is  evident  that  his  own  knowledge  of  Hebrew  was 
small,  and  his  Greek  translation  swarms  with  errors. t 
Another  Greek  text,  enriched  by  glosses,  has  come 
down  to  us  through  the  Latin  Vulgate.  The  Syriac 
version,  which  was  also  made  from  the  Hebrew, 
gives  us  in  very  many  instances  the  original  far 
better  than  the  Greek.  | 

*  Saint  Jerome,  Troef.  in  lihros  Salomonis,  leaves  room  for  doubt. 

f  For  example,  in  xxiv.  25  he  has  confounded  nx  and  IN'  ;  and  xxv. 
14  ^^'^  has  been  misunderstood. 

X  Observe  especially  the  mention  of  Job  (xxxviii.  1  ;  Cf.  Ecclesias- 
ticus  xlix.  11).  The  text  of  the  son  of  Sirach  must  surely  have  been 
m;;Dn  p  3'i<  nx  1D1  d:i.     It  is  well  known  that  the  Hebrew  text 

VOL.  IV.  —  17 


2S8         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

The  Talmud  quotes  many  sentences  from  a  certain 
Ben-Sira,"^  several  of  which  correspond  with  those  of 
Jesus,  the  son  of  Sirach.  But  very  soon  apocrypha 
took  its  share  in  the  work,  and  there  were  in  He- 
brew collections  of  gnomic  maxims  that  have  noth- 
ing in  common  with  the  collection  which  the  Church 
piously  read  for  centuries  under  the  name  of  "  Eccle- 
siasticus."  The  work  of  the  son  of  Sirach  had  an 
immense  popularity  in  the  Church,  being  of  the 
earth,  earthy.  It  was  also  the  manual  of  Christian 
instruction,  and  the  practical  guide  of  an  honest, 
commonplace  Christian.  The  number  of  whippings 
to  be  laid  to  its  account  must  be  incalculable. 
Wisdom,  as  they  called  it,  was  a  real  torturer  of 
children. 

offers  à  propos  to  DT,  a  singularity  indicated  by  a  qeri.  The  author 
had  preserved  this  anomaly  iu  his  text.  His  grandson  has  added  the 
D  to  y\^,  and  then  of  a  j  undecided  (not  final)  he  has  made  a  ^  I  TT^j^oriD 
uy^t  TCùv  èx^p^v  iv  ofi^pcù.  The  Syriac  and  the  Arab  translator 
•who  followed  him  have  preserved  the  true  text.  See  the  book  of 
Job  xxix. 

*  «T'a  is  perhaps  the  true  form  ;  compare  'AxeXoa/ua;^  (Acts  i.  19). 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE    STRUGGLE    FOR   HELLENISM    IN    PALESTINE. 

ANTIOCHUS    EPIPHANES. 

About  175  b.  c.  the  victory  of  Hellenism  on  all  the 
eastern   shores  of  the  Mediterranean  was  complete. 
The  Jews  in  Palestine  alone  resisted  it  with  obsti- 
nacy.    Yet  even  there  the  passion  for  Greek  fashions 
was  deep-rooted  ;  all  the  more  lively  and  frivolous 
elements    of    Jewish    society,    the   young    and    the 
intelligrent,  turned    towards  the    sun  which  was    to 
enlighten  the  world.     But  the  old  party,  who  exclu- 
sively admired  the  Torah  and  was  hostile  to  Greek 
rationalism,   was  more   stiff   than    ever.     We    shall 
see  that  pious  party  triumph,  and  make  the  Jewish 
people  unique  in  history.     Egypt,  Phoenicia,  Syria, 
Asia   Minor,   Italy,    and   even    Carthage,   Armenia, 
and  Assyria,  in  a  great  degree,  became  Hellenized. 
Palestine  alone  opposed  a  resolute  no  to  this  seduc- 
tion.    It  continued  to  speak  in  a  Semitic  idiom,  and 
to  think  Semitic  thoughts.     It  had  very  little  to  do 
with  Greek  science.     It  knew  nothing  of  the  litera- 
ture that  was  received  with  rapture  by  all  the  en- 
lightened among  mankind,  nothing  of  that  supreme 


26o         HISTORY  OF   THE   PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

law  of  reason  and  beauty  which  was  now  established 
in  the  world. 

Greek  life  consisted  of  several  essential  parts, — 
a  sort  of  exterior  discipline,  requiring  public  estab- 
lishments ;  and  at  certain  hours  an  activity  in 
common,  to  be  engaged  in  by  all  its  young  men,  a 
theatre  for  public  life  and  literary  culture,  baths, 
a  gymnasium,  and  open  porches  for  bodily  exercise. 
The  first  consideration  with  a  Greek  was  due  care 
of  his  own  person.  To  be  sure,  cleanliness  and 
hygiene  play  a  large  part  in  the  life  of  every  Ori- 
ental who  respects  himself  (be  he  a  Jew  of  the  old 
school,  or  a  Mussulman);  but  the  Greek  training 
required  much  more.  Wrestling  and  prescribed 
gymnastic  exercise  are  repugnant  to  Orientals.  The 
nudity  compelled  by  the  Greek  palaestra  was  shock- 
ing to  them.  They  considered  it  as  leading  on 
to  vices  of  which  Greece,"^  unhappily,  was  far  too 
careless.  In  the  gymnasium,  circumcision  was  often 
a  butt  for  ridicule.t  The  emulation  entailed  by 
these  games  seemed  to  zealous  Israelites  a  pernicious 
thing,  —  so  much  sheer  loss  to  a  true  sense  of  their 
own  national  glory. ^ 

Accordingly  the  city  of  Jerusalem  was  divided 
into  two  parties.  One  half,  madly  eager  to  imitate 
Greek  customs,  neglected  nothing  that  would  assimi- 
late its  deportment,  its  dress,  and  its  language  to 

*  2  Maccabees  iv.  12. 

t  Saint  Paul,  66,  &c.;  Marcus  Aurelius,  556. 

X  2  Maccabees  iv.  15. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  HELLENISM  IN  PALESTINE.    261 

those  of  Greece.  To  this  party  of  Graecomaniacs 
were  opposed  men  of  piety,  men  of  narrow  ideas, 
those  called  hasidim,  hostile  to  Greek  civilization 
even  in  what  was  excellent,  who  wrote  only  in  He- 
brew or  Aramean,  and  on  the  lines  of  their  ancient 
literature.  This  gulf  between  these  parties  led  to 
another,  deeper  still.  The  majority  of  the  Jewish 
community  were  fervent  Jews  ;  but  there  were  luke- 
warm ones  among  them,  many  who  were  barely 
Jews,  who  hated  the  strict  way  of  life  enjoined  by 
the  Torah.  This  irreligious  group  was  a  ready  mark 
for  a  propaganda  coming  from  without,  especially 
when  the  drift  of  the  day  was  all  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. The  hasidim,  on  their  part,  formed  a  coterie, 
a  "  synagogue,"  entirely  apart.* 

The  Torah,  carried  out  as  civil  law  by  Jewish  state 
authority,  must  have  been  intolerable,  and  very  nat- 
urally. It  was  a  code  drawn  up  by  Utopian  theo- 
rists for  an  ideal  society,  not  a  system  of  common 
law,  formulated,  but  open  to  reform.  One  sees  how 
it  worked  under  the  Asmoneans  when  the  power  of 
the  nation  was  really  in  the  hands  of  the  Jews.  At 
the  period  that  we  have  reached,  this  was  not  quite 
the  case,  but  very  nearly  so.  The  Persian  and  Greek 
governors  cared  very  little  about  the  local  affairs  of 
the  communities  they  ruled  over,  and  so  they  ended 
in  being  petty  tyrannical  States.  Things  went  on 
very  much  as  they  do  in  the  Ottoman  empire  in 
non-Mussulman  communities,  where  each  individual 

*  1  Maccabees  ii.  42  (edit.  Fritzsche). 


262         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

is  under  the  absolute  power  of  his  own  clergy.  A 
pious  Jew  was  therefore  subject  to  the  Torah,  ad- 
mirable for  its  social  aspirations,  but  one  of  the 
worst  codes  to  live  by  that  were  ever  seen.  This 
created  some  very  difficult  situations.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  Greek  law,  which  like  Roman  law  was 
purely  rationalistic,  should  offer  an  open  door  of 
escape  from  these  impracticabilities. 

Neither  the  Lagidse,  who  never  practised  for  Hel- 
lenism the  method  of  compulsion,  nor  Antiochus  the 
Great  and  his  successor,  who  were  tolerant,  made 
any  attempt  to  interfere  in  this  burning  family 
quarrel,  or  to  exercise  an  influence  on  behalf  of 
either  party.  It  was  otherwise  when  the  throne  of 
Syria  came  to  be  occupied  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes,* 
a  man  of  restless  temper,  of  no  firm  purpose,  liberal 
at  times,  but  always  violent,  who  marred  even  a 
good  cause  by  his  intemperance  and  want  of  judg- 
ment. The  Jew^s,  possibly  prejudiced,  found  his 
countenance  haughty,  his  air  fierce,  his  heart  so  hard 
that  nothing  which  usually  softens  men  —  neither 
women  nor  religion  —  could  bend  him.  They  said 
he  was  moulded  of  nothing  but  pride  and  fraud.t 
His  lack  of  dignity,  and  his  deeds  like  those  of  a 
debauched  scapegrace,  would  have  been  of  no  great 
consequence  to  the  world  if  he  had  not  imperilled 
his  authority  by  enterprises  that  never  came  to  any- 
thing,  in   which   the    most   melancholy   mischances 

*  Polybius,  xxvi.  10. 

t  Daniel  viii.  23,  &c.  ;  xi.  21,  &c.,  37. 


ANTIOCHUS  EPIPHANES.  263 

awaited  him.  He  loved  Greece,  and  he  looked  upon 
himself  as  the  representative  of  the  Greek  spirit  in 
the  Orient.  The  god  who  was  the  object  of  his 
predilection,  and  whose  worship  he  considered  it  his 
duty  to  promote,  was  that  majestic  deity,  the  Olym- 
pian Zeus,*  who  is  better  served  by  calm  reason 
than  by  rash  acts  of  violence.  He  had  no  conception 
whatever  of  the  character  of  the  country  he  reigned 
over,  —  a  country  of  deep-seated  political  and  reli- 
gious diversities,  where  no  centralisation  could  be 
effected  unless  the  local  worship  should  be  publicly 
respected,  being  as  it  was  the  equivalent  of  what 
were  elsewhere  patriotism  or  a  citizen's  attachment 
to  his  city.  He  committed  the  very  gravest  fault  a 
sovereign  can  commit,  which  is  to  interfere  with  the 
religion  of  his  subjects.  He  was  very  intelligent 
and  generous,  and  his  tastes  were  all  for  greatness.f 
He  made  Antioch  a  brilliant  centre,  though  not  to 
be  compared  with  Alexandria  in  science  and  serious 
literature.  He  was  in  some  sort  the  second  founder 
of  that  city,  which  up  to  his  time  had  not  greatly 
developed.^  Thanks  to  him,  Antioch  took  her  place 
among  the  most  splendid  cities  of  the  world.  She 
became  one  of  the  brightest  spots  whence  flowed  rays 
of  Hellenism.  The  temptation  was  strong  to  make 
this  lofty  civilisation  of  reason  prevail  over  countries 
which  till  then  had  known  only  an  inferior  culture, 

*  The  Olympicon  of  Athens  was  his.     Polybius  xxvii.  10. 

t  Diodorus  Sicuhis,  xxix.  32  ;  xxxi.  16  ;  Livy,  xli.  20. 

X  See  Ottfried  Millier,  De  Antiq.  Antioch.,  pp.  34,  35,  53-65. 


264         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

and  over  religions  that  almost  all  seemed  to  have 
some  flaw  of  superstition  or  fanaticism.  It  is  prob- 
able that  if  Antiochus  the  Great  had  not  united 
Palestine  to  the  empire  of  the  SeleucidaB,  the  enter- 
prise of  Epiphanes,  aiming  only  to  Hellénise  north- 
ern Syria,  would  have  succeeded.  But  Judaism 
presented  an  invincible  opposition.  In  attacking  it, 
Epiphanes  struck  against  a  rock.  He  did  not  indeed 
content  himself  with  curbing  the  excesses  of  fanati- 
cism, with  guaranteeing  liberty  of  dissent,  or  with 
making  all  forms  of  worship  subservient  to  one  civil 
law.  He  vainly  sought  to  suppress  Judaism,  and 
force  tlie  Jews  to  acts  they  held  to  be  idolatrous.* 
He  has  been  compared  to  Joseph  II.  of  Austria,  but 
the  comparison  is  not  exact  ;  for  Joseph  II.  only 
upheld  the  rights  of  the  secular  State  in  opposition 
to  the  encroachments  of  the  theocracy.  Epiphanes 
was  a  true  persecutor,  and  as  his  character  lacked 
balance,  resistance  impelled  him  to  madness  and 
folly.  His  contemporaries,  punning  on  his  royal 
name,  called  him  Epimanes.  It  seemed,  indeed,  as 
if  at  tin;ies  he  had  fits  of  well-defined  insanity. 

His  is  the  first  persecution  which  befel  the  theoc- 
racy that  had  proceeded  from  the  teachings  of  the 
Jewish  prophets.  Antiochus  acted  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple as  the  Roman  emperors,  some  of  the  best 
of  them  ;    but  he  was  less  excusable,  because  Juda- 

*  Ttex  Antiochus  demere  superatitionem  et  mores  Grœcorum  dare  ad- 
nisus,  quominus  tœterr'nnam  gentem  in  melius  mutaret,  Partliorum  hello 
prohibitus  est.  —  Tacitus,  Hist.  v.  8. 


ANTIOCHUS  EPIPHANES.  265 

ism  was  confined  to  one  small  country,  while  Chris- 
tianity was  a  widespread  evil  menacing  the  empire 
itself.  The  incessant  fire  of  complaint  and  recrimi- 
nation between  Church  and  State  has  never  ceased 
up  to  our  own  day.  There  is  indeed  a  difference 
between  a  form  of  society  claiming  to  be  founded 
on  a  divine  revelation,  and  that  broad  human  society 
which  acknowledges  only  the  bonds  of  law  and 
reason.  Marcus  Aurelius,  who  was  a  very  different 
man  from  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  was,  like  him,  the 
persecutor  of  a  theocracy.  The  excuse  for  these 
great  men  is  that  a  theocracy,  where  it  has  the 
upper  hand,  persecutes  its  adversaries  even  more 
cruelly  than  they  have  persecuted  it.  Antiochus, 
before  coming  to  the  throne,  had  passed  his  youth 
as  a  hostage  at  Rome.  Possibly  he  may  have  ac- 
quired in  his  intimate  intercourse  with  great  Roman 
families  a  positive  tone  in  his  ideas,  a  contempt  for 
all  religions  except  national  superstitions,  which  in 
after  year§  was  to  make  the  Roman  Empire  the 
worst  enemy  of  theocracies  throughout  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE    PERSECUTION    OF    ANTIOCHUS.  —  THE    ABOMINA- 
TION   OF    DESOLATION. 

Antiochus,  from  his  accession  (175  b.  c),  showed 
his  dislike  of  the  Jews,  at  least  for  those  of  strict 
piety,  the  hasidim.  All  employments  were  given  to 
Jewish  liberals,  several  of  whom,  to  court  the  favour 
of  the  king,  renounced  their  religion,  and  did  hom- 
age to  Zeus  Olympius.  Such  apostasies  were  num- 
erous.* The  renegade  became  the  recipient  of  all 
kinds  of  favours  ;  places  and  lucrative  employments 
were  reserved  for  him.f  Circumcision  alone  re- 
mained, a  painful  reminder  of  his  old  estate,  expos- 
ing him  to  disagreeable  remarks  in  public  places. 
He  endeavoured  to  remedy  it  by  a  painful  operation 
described  by  Celsus;|  after  which  he  assumed  a 
supercilious  air,  appeared  everywhere  in  Greek  cos- 
tume, endeavoured  to  be  in  all  things  the  model  of 
an  accomplished  Greek,  despising  Mosaic  customs 
and  his  old-fashioned  co-religionists. 

*  1  Maccabees  i.  11. 

t  Daniel  xi.  30-39  ;  1  Maccabees  ii.  18;  cf.  Les  Apôtres,  p.  330. 

t  1  Maccabees  i.  11-15. 


THE  PERSECUTION  OF  ANTIOCHUS.  267 

One  may  conceive  the  horror  and  the  grief  felt 
by  a  faithful  Hierosolymite  when  he  beheld  such  a 
beino-,  who  was  often  tricked  out  with  official  titles 
and  handsomely   rewarded    for    his    apostasy.     Day 
after  day  the  epidemic  of   Hellenism   was   making 
havoc  ;  the  fashions  of  Antioch  spread  as  by  enchant- 
ment ;    in  Jerusalem  a   majority   was  won    over   to 
the  new  ideas.*     The  accession  of  Antiochus,  whose 
opinions  probably  were  well  known  beforehand,  gave 
to  the  Greek  party  irresistible  strength.     The  head 
of  the  party  in  opposition  was  Onias  III.,  who  was 
then  high-priest.     He  was  a  firm  and  pious  man, 
who  under  Seleucus  Philopator  had  vigorously   de- 
fended the  treasures  of  the  Temple  ;  t  his  son  Joshua 
(or  Jesus),  who  according  to  the  custom  of  the  Hel- 
lenists had  changed  his  name  to  Jason,  was  at  the 
head  of  the  Greek  party.     The  effort  of  that  party 
was  to  deprive  Onias  of  his  office,  and  put  Jason  in 
his  place.     Jason  made  the  king  enormous  promises 
of  money.     He  also  engaged  to  do  all  in  his  power 
to  Hellénise  Jerusalem;    especially   he   promised    to 
build  a  gymnasium,  and  a  young  men's  club-house. 
The  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  were  to  be  registered 
as  Antiochians,  and  considered  citizens  of  Antioch. 
Antiochus  accepted  these  proposals.     Onias  was  de- 
posed, and  Jason  was  made  high-priest. |     The  Hel- 
lenising    process    was   pushed    to    its    limits.      The 
gymnasium  was  built  ;   young  men  rushed  to  it  in 

*  1  Maccabees  i.  11-15.  f  2  Maccabees  iii.  1,  &c.  ;  iv.  1,  «&c. 

X  2  Maccabees  iv.  7-10.     Josephus  is  in  error. 


268         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

crowds  ;  even  priests  left  their  service  at  the  altar 
for  training  in  the  palœstra.  It  was  a  fever  of  in- 
novation and  transformation  ;  every  man  was  anx- 
ious to  conceal  the  fact  of  his  circumcision,  and  to 
give  himself  the  air  of  a  Greek.  Never  had  the 
fate  of  Israel  been  in  more  peril  than  at  this  evil 
epoch  (about  172  b.  c).  A  little  more,  and  the 
Hebrew  Bible  would  have  been  lost,  and  the  Jewish 
religion  blotted  out  forever. 

No  scruples  arrested  the  career  of  Jason.  In  the 
year  when  the  festival  of  Melkarth  took  place  at 
Tyre  (the  feast  was  held  every  fifth  year),  he  sent 
a  rich  gift  to  the  idol  to  show  his  breadth  of  mind 
and  generosity.  Those  who  carried  his  gift  were 
more  timid  than  their  high-priest  ;  they  paid  over 
the  money,  but  they  did  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  in- 
sure its  not  being  directly  employed  in  the  Tyrian 
worship. 

Jason  was  only  three  years  in  power.  A  certain 
Onias,  who  preferred  to  call  himself  Menelaus,^  and 
who  is  sometimes  said  to  have  been  Jason's  brother,! 
supplanted  him  in  171  by  promising  still  larger  gifts 
of  money  to  Antiochus.  To  pay  this  virtual  tribute 
he  laid  hands  on  the  treasures  of  the  Temple,  and 
committed  all  manner  of  crimes. |  Old  Onias  had 
retired  to  Daphne  near  Antioch  ;  he  was  an  honest 

*  Possibly  the  mode  of  writing  had  something  to  do  with  this. 
According  to  the  Hebrew  alphabet  at  that  day,  the  name  N^jn  would 
be  very  like  kSjd- 

f  Josephus,  Antiquities^  xii.  v.  1;  of.  xv.  iii.  1. 

X  2  Maccabees  iv.  27-50. 


THE  PERSECUTION  OF  ANTIOCHUS.  269 

man,  who  did  not  hesitate  to  speak  his  mind.  Mene- 
laus  had  him  assassinated.  Thus  perished  the  last 
high-priest  of  the  house  of  Zadok.  Since  the  return 
from  the  Captivity  at  Babylon  not  a  single  high-priest 
had  been  taken  from  outside  the  race  of  Saraiah. 

Jason,  though  deposed,  continued  his  intrigues. 
There  seemed  to  be  a^  positive  rivalry  between  the 
two  wretches,  to  see  which  could  do  most  harm  to 
his  country.  It  is  very  hard  to  follow  the  thread  of 
their  proceedings.  But  it  is  certain  that  in  170 
Antiochus  on  his  return  from  one  of  his  expeditions 
into  Egypt  passed  through  Jerusalem,  where  he  shed 
torrents  of  blood  ;  and,  prompted  in  his  misdeeds 
by  the  odious  Menelaus,  he  pillaged  the  Temple,  and 
carried  off  the  most  precious  things  in  it  to  Antioch."^ 

The  situation  was  horrible  :  all  moral  feeling 
seemed  destroyed  ;  God  seemed  verily  to  have  turned 
away  his  face  from  his  people.  And  there  was  worse 
to  come.  In  168  Antiochus  made  a  fresh  expedition 
into  Egypt,  whence  he  was  soon  turned  back,  being 
baffled  by  the  circle  of  Popilius  LaBnas.f  He  returned 
northward  in  a  rage,  and  all  his  fury  fell  on  Jerusa- 
lem. |      Possibly   the   relations   of   the   conservative 

*  1  jNIaccabees  i.  20-24;  ii.  9  ;  2  Maccabees  v.  1-21;  Josephus, 
Antiquities,  xii.  v.  3;  Against  Apion,  ii.  7. 

f  "When  Antiochus  was  at  Alexandria,  he  was  met  by  deputies  of 
the  Eoman  Senate,  who  demanded  that  he  should  make  peace  and 
withdraw  from  Egypt;  and  as  he  eluded  the  demand  with  evasive 
answers,  Popilius  haughtily  drew  a  circle  round  him  in  the  sand, 
ordering  him  to  give  an  answer  to  the  Senate  before  he  stirred  beyond 
that  line.     Antiochus  was  paralysed,  and  obeyed.  —  Tr. 

t  Daniel  xi.  30,  31. 


270         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Jews  with  the  Komans,  already  apparent,  were  the 
secret  cause  of  this  sudden  change  of  policy,  which 
at  the  first  glance  seems  inexplicable.  He  now 
aimed,  at  the  total  extinction  of  Judaism.  His  plan 
of  execution  was  clear  and  thorough  ;  it  was  to 
drive  out  the  old  population,  and  to  replace  it  either 
by  a  purely  Greek  colony,  or  by  new-made  Hellen- 
ists.* Nothing  was  more  common  at  that  day  than 
such  a  substitution.  Almost  all  the  Macedonian 
cities  in  Syria  owed  their  origin  to  a  veteres  migrati 
coloni  more  or  less  brutal.  We  shall  soon  see  the 
Jews  practising  the  same  method  t  when  they  be- 
come the  stronger  party.  Antiochus  charged  one 
of  his  fiscal  agents,  named  Apollonius,  to  see  that 
his  plans  were  carried  out.  Many  Jews  quitted 
Jerusalem  ;  many  who  remained  were  put  to  death, 
their  wives  and  children  being  sold  as  slaves.  The 
rest  apostatised.  Pagans  were  brought  in  to  fill  the 
void  left  by  the  expulsion  or  extermination  of  the 
Jewish  population.  There  were  several  months  — 
nay,  several  years  —  when  Jerusalem  did  not  reckon 
one  true  Jew  as  its  inhabitant.  It  seemed  as  if 
Adonai  had  been  false  to  his  promises  ;  every  proph- 
ecy had  come  to  nothing. 

The  Syrians  apparently  put  no  great  confidence  in 
the  new  colony  with  which  they  had  peopled  Jeru- 
salem ;    for  they  caused  the  walls  of  the  city  to  be 

*  1  Maccabees  1,  29-40;  2  Maccabees  v.  23-26;  Josephus,  Antiqui- 
ties^ xii.  V.  4.  Compare  Daniel  vii.  25;  viii.  11,  &c.;  ix.  27;  xi.  31, 
&c.;  xii.  11. 

f  At  Jaffa  and  Gezer. 


THE  PERSECUTION  OF  ANTIOCHUS.  271 

broken  down,  considering  Jerusalem  a  ]3ermanent 
support  to  the  cause  of  Judaism,  and  they  com- 
manded a  citadel  to  be  constructed  on  the  hill 
opposite  Mount  Zion.^  Tliey  called  it  "  Akra,"  and 
it  was  to  serve  as  a  place  of  retreat  for  the  Hellenic 
population  and  the  renegades  in  case  of  danger.! 
This  precaution  was  not  useless.  In  the  long 
struggle  which  followed,  Akra  always  remained  in 
the  hands  of  the  Syrians.  It  was  not  conquered  by 
the  Jews  till  twenty-six  years  later,  in  141  b.  c.  \ 
Jewish  worship  ceased.  The  daily  sacrifice,  or 
4  tamidy  was  at  an  end.  The  Temple  itself  was  fitted 
up  so  as  to  suit  the  new  occasions.  The  patron 
divinity  of  the  Syrian  propaganda,  the  Olympian 
Zeus   (Jupiter),   was   substituted   for   lahveh.      The 

*  The  mount  on  which  is  Nebi  Dacud,  the  pretended  Zion  of 
traditional  topographers. 

t  1  Maccabees  i.  31,  33-36;  Josephus,  Antiquities^  xii.,  y.  4.  Pas- 
sages like  2  Maccabees  iv.  12,  27,  are  anticipations  of  the  event. 

X  The  position  of  Akra  is  a  matter  of  controversy.  One  meets 
with  sheer  impossibilities  if  one  would  place  this  large  castle  near  the 
Temple  or  on  the  Mount  of  Ophel.  "  Akra  "  is  a  word  synonymous 
with  "  acropolis."  To  make  of  it  a  lower  town  is  equally  inadmissible. 
The  strong  position  of  the  hill  west  of  Jerusalem  suits  exactly.  It  is 
true  that  Akra  in  Maccabees  is  identified  with  "the  city  of  David,"  or 
Zion  (1  Maccabees  i.  33;  ii.  31;  vii.  32;  xiv.  36);  but  it  is  quite  likely 
that  the  error  by  which  Zion  was  transferred  from  the  eastern  to  the  west- 
ern hill,  an  error  fully  adopted  by  Josephus,  may  have  been  already 
adopted  in  the  time  of  the  Maccabees  (see  above).  It  is  true  that 
the  first  Book  of  the  :Maccabees  (iv.  37-60;  v.  54;  vi.  48-62;  vii.  33) 
identifies  Zion  with  the  hill  on  which  the  Temple  was  built.  Perhaps 
the  identity  of  the  City  of  David  with  Zion  was  not  always  kept  up. 
See  especially  1  Maccabees  vii.  32,  33,  where  the  City  of  David  and 
Zion  are  clearly  not  the  same;  and,  above  all,  1  Maccabees  xiii.  52  : 
TO  opoç  Tov  iepov  to  napa  rrju  aKpav. 


272         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

ornaments  of  the  interior  of  the  Temple  had  been 
pillaged  two  years  before  ;  the  altar  of  incense,  the 
candlestick  with  seven  branches,  the  table  of  the 
shew-bread,  had  been  carried  away.  We  do  not 
know  what  alterations  the  pagans  made  in  the 
Holy  of  Holies  ;  the  doors  were  shut.  According  to 
Greek  custom,  the  great  altar  before  the  Temple  was 
the  most  important  thing.  Here  something  of  the 
gravest  import  took  place.  A  statue  of  Olympian 
Zeus  was  placed  on  a  pedestal  immediately  behind 
the  altar,"^  so  that  it  was  to  him  the  sacrifices  were 
offered.  This  statue  was  an  unspeakable  horror  to 
the  Jews.  They  long  remembered  the  date  at  which 
it  was  erected,  the  15th  day  of  the  month  Kislev, 
in  the  year  145  of  the  Seleucidae,  —  consequently  in 
December  of  the  year  168  b.  c.  They  designated  it 
with  a  profusion  of  the  coarsest  epithets  ;  they  called 
it  DDK^D  vipiy,  "  filth  of  devastation,"  which  the  Greeks 
translated  into  /3SeXuy/xa  r-i^ç  èpT^/xwcrewç,  "the  abomi- 
nation of  desolation,"  according  to  the  Latin. t 
Evil  was  now  at  its  height.  lahveh  was  dethroned 
by  his  Greek  rival,  who  on  the  very  threshold  of  his 
Temple  was  receiving  in  his  stead  the  smoke  of 
sacrifices.  Never  before  had  there  been  witnessed 
such  an  abomination.    Nebuchadnezzar  had  destroyed 

*  See  p.  319,  below- 

t  Daniel  ix.  27;  xi.  31  ;  xii.  11  (cf.  viii.  13)  ;  1  Maccabees  i.  54,  59; 
2  Maccabees  vi.  2;  cf.  Matthew  xxiv.  15.  In  Daniel,  ix.  27,  read 
DrDl^D  ïlpiy  ^Jp.  The  Masoretic  copyists  have  ill  divided  the  word, 
and  have  added  the  first  D  of  Doty^  to  yipK^,  which  has  led  them  to 
put  fjJD  in  the  constructive  case. 


THE  ABOMINATION  OF  DESOLATION.  273 

the  sanctuary,  but  now  a  strange  god  has  installed 
himself  in  the  very  abode  of  lahveh,  takes  his  place, 
usurps  his  honours.     Oh,  horrible  Î  most  horrible  ! 

Similar  altars  to  Olympian  Zeus  were  raised  in 
all  Jewish  cities  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Jerusa- 
lem.^ lahveh  was  pursued  even  into  his  sanctuary 
at  Gerizim.  There  the  name  "Zeus  Xenios"  pre- 
vailed. The  Samaritan  population  probably  offered 
less  resistance  than  the  Jews.  We  do  not  hear 
at  this  date  of  any  Samaritan  martyrs.f 

While  Greek  worship  was  thus  established  through- 
out Judea,  Jewish  worship  was  sternly  prohibited. 
Circumcision,  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  and 
other  Jewish  injunctions  were  forbidden  under  pain 
of  death.  The  government  watchfulness  in  these 
matters  was  most  severe.  War  was  declared  against 
the  book  that  was  the  prime  cause  of  these  evils; 
all  copies  of  the  Torah  that  could  be  found  were 
destroyed.  Inspectors  once  a  month  passed  through 
the  country  to  seize  scrolls  of  the  Law,  and  to  see  if 
any  new  case  of  circumcision  had  taken  place.  At 
the  Bacchanalia  all  persons  were  obliged  to  take  part 
in  the  festival,  crowned  with  ivy.  |  The  law  for- 
bidding the  use  of  pork  gave  rise  to  many  annoy- 
ances. The  courts  of  the  Temple  became  the  scene 
of  heathen  orgies  ;    pagans  came   there  with  their 

♦  See  1  Maccabees  i.  46,  49,  50,  57,  58;  ii.  15,  23. 

f  The  passage  in  1  Maccabees  iii.  16  might  lead  us  even  to 
suppose  that  the  Samaritans  made  common  cause  with  the  Syrians 
against  the  Jews. 

{  2  Maccabees  vi.  2-7. 

VOL.  IV.  — 18 


274         HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

concubines,  and  gave  themselves  up  to  debauchery. 
Horrible  things,  no  doubt  exaggerated,  were  told. 
Two  mothers  were  brought  before  the  judges  charged 
with  having  circumcised  their  children.  They  were 
hung  up  by  the  breasts,  and  then  flung  from  the 
city  wall.  Some  people  who  had  taken  refuge  in  a 
cave,  there  to  keep  the  Sabbath,  allowed  themselves 
to  be  suffocated  by  smoke  rather  than  defend  them- 
selves.* Many  legends  of  martyrs  now  arose.  Old 
Eleazar,  who  refused  to  avail  himself  of  a  small 
deception  to  save  his  life  ;  t  the  mother  who  wit- 
nessed the  execution  of  her  seven  sons,  \  encouraging 
them  to  the  last,  —  are  the  first  of  those  stories 
which  were  to  make  the  victory  of  Christianity.  § 
The  Acts  of  the  Martyrs,  like  all  other  branches 
of  Christian  literature,  have  their  root  in  Israel. 

The  terrible  shock  that  such  a  tragic  state  of 
things  must  have  produced  in  the  national  con- 
science of  unhappy  Israel  would  surely  find  expres- 
sion in  earnest  prayers  and  elegiac  poems.  The  form 
in  which  prayer  and  elegy  expressed  themselves  in 
Israel  was  the  psalm.  There  were  doubtless  com- 
positions of  that  kind  in  those  days,  some  of  which 
were  probably  written   down.||     But  are  there  any 

*  2  Maccabees  vi.  4-11  ;  Daniel  xi.  33,  34,  35. 

t  2  IMaccabees  vi.  18,  &c. 

X  2  Maccabees  vii.  1.  &c.  Compare  what  is  called  the  Fourth 
Book  of  the  Maccabees,  and  the  Origines  du  Christianisme,  v.  303,  &c. 
On  the  Jewish  texts  see  Ziinz,  Die  gottesdienstlichen  Vortriige  der 
Juden.  p.  124. 

§  The  improbabilities  are  the  same,  —  Antiochus  presiding  over  the 
executions,  &c. 

II  Traces  may  be  found  in  1  Maccabees  i.  25,  &c.,  38,  &c.,  51,  &c. 


THE  ABOMINATION  OF  DESOLATION,  275 

such  in  our  collection  of  Psalms  ?  This  is  one  of  the 
points  on  which  it  is  hard  to  pronounce  an  opinion. 
The  soul  of  Israel  had  not  changed,  bat  it  had 
changed  its  language  ;  and  we  think  that  any  poems 
composed  in  the  days  of  Antiochus  would  not  be 
hard  to  distinguish  from  the  more  ancient  classics.*" 

*  Psalms  xliv.,  Ixxiv.,  Ixxix.,  Ixxxiii.,  seem  especially  suitable  to 
these  days  ;  but  after  all  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  their  being  re- 
garded as  more  ancient.  The  anavim  had  often  found  themselves  in 
similar  situations.  These  psalms  are  in  most  beautiful  classic  lan- 
guage, in  the  purest  style,  though  often,  as  in  Psalm  Ixxiv.  especially, 
full  of  difficulties  caused  by  errors  of  copyists.  Now,  the  language  in 
the  days  of  the  Maccabees  had  become  very  corrupt,  and  the  poetic 
spirit  seemed  lost;  the  style  was  flat  and  prolix,  after  the  Aramean 
fashion,  offering  no  difficulties  except  where  the  writer  is  pleased  to 
involve  the  expression  of  his  thoughts.  We  can  judge  of  it  by  the 
Book  of  Daniel,  and  by  original  fragments  in  the  first  Book  of  Macca- 
bees, and  by  canticles  which  it  was  the  fashion  of  the  day  to  introduce 
everywhere,  whose  tone  is  very  feeble.  Notice  also  the  insipid  prayer 
in  Daniel  ix.  4,  &c.,  and  compare  with  the  canticles  in  chap.  iii.  If 
the  times  of  the  Maccabees  had  produced  any  psalms,  they  would  have 
formed  a  group  easily  recognisable  in  one  of  the  five  books  which  form 
our  present  collection  ;  or  rather  they  would  form  a  collection  by  them- 
selves, and  would  not  have  been  attributed  to  David.  Could  the 
"  Psalms  of  Solomon,"  somewhat  later  than  the  days  of  the  Maccabees, 
have  ever  been  confounded  with  the  Psalter  of  David?  Everything 
leads  us  to  the  belief  that  the  canonical  collection  of  the  Psalms  was 
finished,  and  even  translated  into  Greek,  at  the  date  of  the  Maccabees 
(Ecclesiasticus,  prologue,  and  xlvii.  6,  &c.).  There  were  some  other 
books  added  afterwards  to  the  canon  (Daniel,  Ecclesiastes,  and  Lamen- 
tations), but  the  ancient  Biblical  volume  was  closed  forever;  no  one 
dared  add  to  its  pages.  The  style  of  the  Greek  translation  of  the 
Psalms  is  uniform;  it  is  the  work  of  one  writer.  The  Maccabean 
Psalms,  if  we  had  any,  would  conflict  with  the  others  in  their  Greek 
as  well  as  Hebrew.  Let  us  add  that  the  Psalm  that  seems  most  Mac- 
cabean (Ixxiv.)  is  quoted  in  the  First  Book  of  Maccabees  as  an  old 
prophetic  text.  Compare  the  allusion  to  Psalm  xcii.  8,  in  1  Maccabees 
ix.  23.  Let  us  add  further  that  the  "  Psalms  of  Solomon  "  speak  of 
the  Canonical  Psalter  as  closed,  and  attribute  the  whole  of  it  to 
David, 


276         HISTORY  OF  THE   PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

The  age  was  not  literary  ;  the  language  spoken  was 
flat  and  debased.  The  greatest  change  that  was 
taking  place  was  in  the  line  of  religious  sentiments 
and  opinions.  Israel  was  dragging  her  old  anchors. 
Old  positions  were  no  longer  tenable.  The  kind  of 
shut-in  horizon  that  Israel  had  had  before  her  eyes 
till  then  must  widen  at  all  cost.  Israel  had  been 
fashioned  hitherto  by  dreams  of  the  infinite,  while 
bounded  by  a  narrow  wall.  The  wall  was  about  to 
fall.  Israel  was  about  to  teach  the  world  that 
immortality  till  now  unknown,  —  which,  indeed,  it 
has  never  professed  as  dogma  to  this  day. 


CHAPTER  XIT. 

THE   EVIDENT   NECESSITY   OF   REWARDS   IN   A 
FUTURE    LIFE. 

The  idea  that  virtue  must  meet  with  its  reward  is 
the  most  logical  of  all  ideas  in  the  human  breast. 
That  virtue  is  in  fact  rewarded  would  be  a  very  bold 
assertion,  to  which  the  Israelite  was  brought  by  his 
unshaken  confidence  in  divine  justice.  God  desires 
what  is  right,  and  he  commands  it  ;  consequently 
he  rewards  it.  He  is  all-powerful.  If  he  should 
abandon  those  who  do  his  will,  he  would  be  illogical, 
a  deceiver  and  the  author  of  injustice. 

But  when  does  this  reward  of  the  just  and  this 
punishment  of  the  wicked  take  place  ?  That  ques- 
tion would  have  seemed  absurd  to  an  old  son  of 
Shem.  .  He  knew  of  no  other  life  for  man  but  this. 
He  rejected  all  forms  in  which  other  nations  pictured 
to  themselves  a  life  beyond  the  grave,  as  mere 
chimeras.  He  was  led  to  this  conclusion  by  a  certain 
good  sense,  and  by  the  high  idea  he  had  of  the  divine 
majesty.  God  only  is  eternal;  man  lives  but  a  few 
years  at  most  ;  an  immortal  man  would  be  a  god,  a 
rival  of   God  himself,  an  impossibility.      Man  can 


278         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

only  prolong  a  little  his  ephemeral  existence  through 
his  children,  or  if  he  has  no  children,  by  a  monu- 
ment [Shem,  "name"),  which  will  retain  his  memory 
in  his  tribe. 

This  assertion  that  virtue  is  rewarded  here  below 
is  at  once  encountered  by  unanswerable  objections. 
The  assertion  is  not  true.  In  fact,  in  w^hatever  age 
of  the  world,  and  in  whatever  society  we  place  our- 
selves, compensatory  justice  is  constantly  violated. 
More  versed  in  social  science  than  the  ancients,  we 
can  go  further,  and  assert  that  it  is  not  possible  it 
should  be  otherwise.  Injustice  is  to  be  found  in 
Nature  itself.  Let  us  suppose  society  as  perfect,  and 
the  art  of  medicine  as  advanced,  as  we  will,  —  there 
will  always  be  accidents,  which  justice  cannot  con- 
trol. A  man  dies  in  the  devoted  attempt  to  save 
another  ;  no  one  can  argue  that  absolute  justice  in 
this  present  world  has  been  displayed  in  the  fate  of 
that  man.  Old  Israel  tried  all  sorts  of  sophisms  to 
get  out  of  this  difficulty.  Very  ancient  times  took 
refuge  in  collective  justice  :  sons  are  punished  for 
the  crimes  of  their  fathers  ;  a  community  is  punished 
for  the  misdeeds  of  some  of  its  members.  But  such 
justice  is  so  defective  that  the  most  orthodox  Israel- 
ites gave  it  up  at  last.  Job  declares  that  the  violent 
man,  whose  children  are  little  esteemed,  is  not  really 
punished,  because  he  knows  nothing  of  it  in  Sheol  : 
he  ought  himself  to  have  l)eheld  his  own  disgrace. 
Ezekiel  completely  gives  up  this  collective  theory, 
and  declares  that  every  man  is  punished  or  rewarded 


NECESSITY  OF  REWARDS  IN  A  FUTURE  LIFE.     279 

for  his  own  actions  and  those  alone.  In  those  days 
men  had  to  take  refuge  in  very  weak  expkinations. 
Sometimes  the  facts  w^ere  denied.  A  psahnist  tells 
us  that  throughout  a  long  life  he  has  never  seen  the 
son  of  a  righteous  man  begging  bread.*  Or,  again, 
they  made  distinctions.  It  is  true,  said  men  of  wis- 
dom, the  good  man  is  often  poor  ;  but  better  is  it  to 
be  happy  with  little  than  to  share  in  the  prosperity 
of  the  wicked.  Such  prosperity  so  quickly  passes 
away  !  Sometimes  they  fall  back  on  the  mysteries 
of  men's  consciences,  or  sins  committed  in  ignorance. 
God  is  a  judge  so  strict  as  to  find  iniquity  in  the 
man  who  seems  the  most  virtuous.  Then  there  was 
the  theory  of  a  brief  probation  :  God  is  sometimes 
pleased  to  put  his  servants  to  the  proof;  but  in  the 
end  he  compensates  the  evil  that  he  has  done  them. 
All  possible  cases  were  imagined.  Job,  the  perfectly 
just  man,  is  overwhelmed  by  terrible  misfortunes,  but 
God  restores  to  him  two-fold  all  his  lost  prosperity  : 
instead  of  three  thousand  camels  he  has  six  thou- 
sand; instead  of  seven  sons  he  has  fourteen.!  He 
dies  at  the  age  of  a  hundred  and  twenty,  full  of  years 
and  honours.  Tobit's  misfortune  is  still  less  merited, 
for  it  comes  upon  him  when  he  is  engaged  in  a  work 
of  charity.  But  he  has  no  reason  to  complain  :  he  is 
cured  ;  he  sees  his  son  well  married  ;  he  experiences 
the  highest  possible  joy,  for  he  witnesses  the  ruin  of 

*  Psalm  xxxvii.  25. 

f  Here  Renan  improves  astonishingly  upon  his  model  :  Job's 
"  seven  sons  and  three  daughters  "  still  remain  to  him,  the  report  of 
their  death  having  (apparently)  been  premature.  —  Tr. 


28o         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 

Nineveh,  the  enemy  of  his  race  ;  and  he  dies  at  a  good 
old  age.  Judith,  after  her  heroic  act,  is  rewarded  by 
the  prosperity  of  her  people,  and  by  the  honours 
they  bestow  on  her.  She  too  lives  to  be  a  hundred 
and  twenty. 

The  vicissitudes  of  the  history  of  Israel  were 
explained  in  the  same  way.  Terrible  calamities, 
without  doubt,  fell  upon  the  nation  for  its  sins. 
These  were  a  father's  chastisements,  smiting  because 
he  loves.  The  future  has  in  store  for  Israel,  as  for 
Job,  infinite  compensations.  The  w^orld,  which  now 
belongs  to  the  violent,  shall  be  his  some  day  ;  the 
people  who  have  despised  him  shall  kiss  his  feet. 

Reasoning  of  this  feeble  kind  calmed  through  cen- 
turies, for  better  or  worse,  the  restless  conscience  of 
Israel.  Content  was  easy  and  cheap  when  the  hon- 
our of  lahveh  was  in  question.  But  in  reality  the 
conflict  of  soul  was  terrible.  The  history  is  a  ten- 
centuries'  effort  to  arrive  at  the  idea  of  ulterior  com- 
pensations. The  prophet,  representative  of  lahveh, 
perpetually  wrestles  with  his  God,  who  draws  him 
on  by  promises  that  he  does  not  keep.  The  pious 
Israelite  continually  reproaches  God  for  breaking  his 
word,  and  for  having  no  favour  but  for  his  enemies. 
What  can  be  more  scandalous,  if  Israel  be  really  the 
people  of  God,  than  to  find  it  everywhere  down- 
trodden by  the  heathen  ?  All  the  powder  of  lahveh 
was  employed  to  turn  the  caprice  of  pagan  despots 
to  the  benefit  of  the  Jews,  and  to  procure  for  pious 
Israelites  comfortable  posts  with  the  conquerors  of 


NECESSITY  OF  REWARDS  IN  A  FUTURE  LIFE,     281 

the  world.  It  seems  as  if  this  were  small  game  for 
the  Almighty.  The  poor  son  of  Sirach  is  at  his 
wits'  end.  A  good  man  dies  who  has  always  been 
unfortunate.  He  can  only  give  wretched  rej)lies  to 
this.  "  Does  one  know  what  has  passed  in  his  last 
moments  ?  One  hour  of  happiness  blots  out  years  of 
suffering  ;  the  evil  that  has  gone  by  is  a  dream,  is 
no  more."  All  this  is  but  poor  comfort.  But  times 
were  calm  ;  men  were  then  rich  and  tranquil.  The 
wealthy  Jew  takes  his  wealth  as  recompense  enough  ; 
he  easily  consents  to  lay  no  claim  on  God  for  para- 
dise. A  rich  man  feels  no  need  of  another  world. 
Judaism,  indeed,  planted  in  the  midst  of  the  sad,  sad 
life  of  antiquity,  gave  its  followers  so  much  happiness 
that  they  passed  lightly  over  many  an  obscurity. 

But  things  changed  on  the  day  when  the  persecu- 
tion of  Antiochus  began.  On  that  day  the  Jews  saw 
apostates  rewarded,  and  the  faithful  who  would  not 
forsake  the  Law  expire  in  the  most  cruel  torments. 
It  was  too  much.  The  explanations  that  had  hith- 
erto seemed  only  a  little  lame  became  entirely  ineffi- 
cient. They  went  on  repeating  by  rote  that  all  this 
was  happening  to  them  because  of  the  people's  sins.*" 
But  this  was  blank  evasion.  Do  what  they  might, 
how  could  they  persuade  themselves  that  those  just 
men  had  in  this  present  life  received  their  reward  ? 
Between  their  torture  and  their  death,  where  was 
there  a  chink  in  which  to  place  their  paradise  ?  The 
son  of  Sirach  himself  would  have  found  it  hard  to  slip 
*  2  Maccabees  vii.  18,  32,  33,  38;  Daniel,  ix.  4,  &c. 


282  HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

in  his  quarter  of  an  hour's  compensation.  No,  no  !  it 
is  impossible.  The  martyr  has  not  his  reward  in  this 
life.  He  is  rewarded,  —  that  is  certain  ;  and  there- 
fore his  reward  must  be  in  another  life,  in  another 
world.  There  is  another  life,  another  world,"^  where 
the  kingdom  of  God  will  be  realised.  Of  that  world 
the  holy  men  now  oppressed  will  be  kings.  Martyrs 
who  have  aided  to  found  that  kingdom  shall  rise 
again  !  The  wicked,  no  doubt,  will  also  rise  again  ; 
but  it  will  be  to  be  cast  into  the  Valle}^  of  Gehenna, 
"where  the  worm  dieth  not  and  the  fire  is  not 
quenched."  t  There  were  two  opinions,  however, 
about  this  last  ;  some  maintained  that  the  wicked 
would  not  rise  again,  that  their  punishment  would 
be  extinction. I 

It  was  by  this  heroic  assurance  that  Israel  came 
conqueror  out  of  a  difficulty  whence  there  was  no 
other  issue.  Never  was  a  dogma  formulated  in  a 
more  unanswerable  manner.  Belief  in  the  resurrec- 
tion proceeded  so  logically  from  the  development  of 
Jewish  ideas  that  it  is  needless  to  examine  whether 
it  had  any  foreign  origin.  Persia  believed  in  the 
resurrection  before  the  Jews  did  ;  §  and  we  must 
confess  that  the  Book  of  Daniel,  in  which  it  ap- 
peared for  the  first  time  as  a  Jewish  doctrine,  is  full 

t  See  vol.  iii,  p.  421;  Ecclesiasticus  vii.  18,  19. 

X  2  Maccabees  vii.  14.  In  resurrectione  justorum.  See  Grig,  du 
Christ.,  V.  276,  and  i.  280. 

§  J.  Darmesteter,  Ormazd  et  Ahriman,  p.  306;  cf.  Theopompus, 
ap.  Diog.  Laerti,  prosem.  8. 


NECESSITY  OF  REWARDS  IN  A  FUTURE  LIFE.     283 

of  traces  of  Persian  influence.  But  men  do  not  bor- 
row what  they  need  for  their  salvation.  The  martyr 
was  the  creator  of  a  belief  in  another  life.  The  Seer 
of  Patmos  never  dreams  of  his  reign  of  a  thousand 
years  but  for  the  martyrs  ;  Daniel  feels  the  need  of 
a  resurrection  only  for  the  martyrs.  The  date  of 
this  belief  among  the  Jews  is  therefore  fixed.  Jesus, 
the  son  of  Sirach,  who  wrote  but  a  few  years  before 
the  crisis  invited  by  Antiochus,  had  no  idea  of  it.  * 
But  the  author  of  Daniel,  who  wrote  during  the  time 
of  anguish,  has  said,  — 

dSi;;  ^^xh  nSx  n^  '^^V-^'^'^'^  ^^'^^^  Q'^'^i 

*'  Many  of  those  who  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth  shall 
awake,  some  to  everlasting  life,  and  some  for  shame  and 
everlasting  contempt.''^  f 

This  at  least  is  clear.  Israel  has  reached  the  last 
outcome  of  its  centuries-old  struggle,  —  the  King- 
dom OF  God,  a  synonym  of  the  future  life,  and  the 
Resurrection.  Having  no  idea  of  a  soul  surviving 
separated  from  its  body,  Israel  could  reach  the  dogma 
of  another  life  only  by  supposing  man  to  return  to 
life  complete,  body  and  soul.  The  souls  of  the  just^ 
require  the  bodies  of  the  just.  The  unity  of  man 
was   thus   better   respected  than   it  has  been  often 

*  It  is  needless  to  add  that  there  is  no  trace  of  the  doctrine  before 
this.     The  testimony  of  Job  rests  on  an  alteration  of  the  text. 

f  Daniel  xii.  2. 

X  2  Maccabees  vii.  9,  11,  14,  23,  29,  36;  xii.  43,  &c.  ;  xiv.  46. 
Song  of  the  Three  Children,  Dan.  iii.  86.  TrvevfxaTa  koi  yj^vxai.  diKalav. 
(Cf.  Matthew  xxvii.  52.)  This  song  was,  in  my  opinion,  part  of  the 
original  Book  of  Daniel. 


284         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

since,  in  many  so-called  spiritualistic  schools.  But 
where  do  these  souls  go  to  enjoy  their  reward  ?  Into 
a  metaphysical  paradise,  which  monotony  and  weari- 
ness would  render  almost  as  unbearable  as  hell  itself  ? 
No,  they  remain  alive  to  reign  with  the  saints,  to 
share  in  that  triumph  of  righteousness  which  they 
have  brought  to  pass,  to  make  part  of  the  everlasting 
kingdom  in  the  bosom  of  a  regenerated  humanity. 

This  is  the  idea  which  has  converted  the  world. 
Belief  in  a  future  life  was  founded  by  the  nation 
which  of  all  others  had  the  least  belief  in  the  immor- 
tality of  the  individual,  and  which  held  out  longest 
against  luring  men  to  morality  by  forged  tickets  of 
admission  to  a  life  which  has  no  reality."^ 

We  must  not  regard  the  advent  of  these  ideas  as 
the  proclamation  of  a  dogma  made  on  infallible  au- 
thority. For  a  long  time  yet,  or  rather,  we  might 
say,  always,  Israelites  will  remain  faithful  to  the  old 
school,  or  will  consider  belief  in  immortality  as  a 
pious  notion,  which  men  may  either  accept  or  reject. 
The  Sadducees  in  this  respect  held  to  the  old  tradi- 
tion. Israel  could  continue  its  wondrous  work  of 
making  perfectly  good  men  without  any  reference 
to  immortality.  There  would  always  be  Jews  who 
would  think  themselves  rewarded  by  wealth,  ease, 
and  the  pleasures  of  this  life  ;  but  logic  required  to 
be  satisfied.  It  was  not  possible  that  the  nation 
which  has  shown  more  disinterested  action  than  any 

*  The  same  may  be  said  of  monogamy,  which  Judaism  so  largely 
contributed  to  found  ;  and  yet  Israel  has  never  suppressed  polygamy. 


NECESSITY  OF  REWARDS  IN  A  FUTURE  LIFE.    285 

other,  and  done  most  to  spread  througli  all  the  world 
the  thought  of  immortality,  should  remain  ignorant 
of  what  we  consider  one  of  our  life's  first  principles. 
Riches  and  length  of  days,  which  seemed  a  sufficient 
reward  to  the  second  Isaiah^*  seen  in  that  light  must 
seem  something  childish. 

For  let  us  not  deceive  ourselves  :  man  is  governed 
by  nothing  but  by  his  conception  of  the  future. 
Any  nation  which  en  masse  gives  up  all  faith  in 
what  lies  beyond  the  grave  will  become  utterly 
degraded.  An  individual  may  do  great  things  and 
yet  not  believe  in  immortality  ;  but  those  around  him 
must  believe  in  it,  for  him  and  for  themselves.  In 
the  movement  of  an  army  there  is  personal  courage, 
and  there  is  also  the  common  impulse.  Faith  in 
glory  and  all  our  pursuings  of  the  ideal  are  but 
another  form  of  faith  in  immortality  ;  they  make 
people  do  a  thousand  things,  the  cost  of  which  will 
never  be  repaid  them  until  after  death  ;  every  noble 
life  is  built,  in  great  part,  on  foundations  laid  in  the 
life  beyond.  Now,  faith  in  glory  is  marred  by  the 
short-sighted  views  of  history  apt  to  prevail  among 
us  at  the  present  day.  Few  people  act  with  an  eye 
to  eternity.  I  own  I  have  grave  doubts  as  to  an 
individual  immortality  ;  and  yet  I  almost  constantly 
act  as  if  I  held  in  view  things  beyond  my  life.  I  like 
to  think  that  my  work  shall  live  after  me  ;  it  seems 
to  me  that  I  shall  live  more  then  than  now.  But 
these   feelings   are   becoming   rare.     One  wants   to 

*  Vol.  iii.  p.  428. 


286         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

enjoy  one's  glory.  In  his  lifetime  he  tastes  it  only 
in  the  blade  \  after  deaths  he  will  not  gather  it  in 
the  sheaf. 

I  have  tried  to  explain  in  my  book  on  the  ''  Origins 
of  Christianity"*  how  the  Jewish  belief  in  the  res- 
urrection and  the  Platonic  dogma  of  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul  were  combined  in  the  second  and 
third  centuries  after  Christ,  in  a  way  that  left  many 
discrepancies.  In  reality,  in  the  belief  of  a  Christian, 
and  of  one  who  is  called  a  spiritualist,  the  Platonic 
dogma  is  most  prominent  ;  the  resurrection  of  the 
body  is  rather  an  embarrassment,  —  something  post- 
poned, like  an  idle  decoration,  till  the  end  of  his 
appointed  time.  I  have  tried  to  show,  on  several 
occasions,!  how  if  our  ideas  à  'priori  about  justice 
have  any  value,  Jewish  ideas  of  the  resurrection  are 
more  likely  to  be  true  than  Platonic  ideas,  which  are 
founded  on  an  error,  —  the  assumed  separability  of 
body  and  soul.  This  is  no  place  to  insist  upon  that 
point.  The  Jewish  conception  has  at  least  its  philo- 
sophic side  :  it  supposes  that  man  of  himself  is  not 
immortal  ;  that  immortality,  if  he  is  to  enjoy  it, 
comes  not  from  his  own  nature,  which  is  essentially 
mortal,  but  solely  from  the  grace  of  God,  whose 
glory  it  is  to  be  just 4     It  is  a  miracle  which  God 

*  Origines  du  Christ.,  ii.  97,  08;  vii.  505,  506. 

f  Vie  de  Jésus;  Dialogues  philosophiques;  Examen  de  conscience 
philosophique. 

X  Christian  theolon;ians  have  also  maintained  that  immortality  is 
not  essential  to  the  nature  of  man,  but  is  the  gift  of  God  by  an 
especial  act  of  grace. 


NECESSITY  OF  REWARDS  IN  A  FUTURE  LIFE.     287 

owes  it  to  himself  to  perform,  despite  the  maxim 
that  "  All  which  begins  must  end."  If  the  universe, 
which  in  millions  of  centuries  will  have  come  to 
its  maturity,  should  undertake  by  an  act  of  will  to 
do  justice  in  some  such  way  to  the  innumefable 
human  creatures  who  will  then  have  lived,  we  may 
imagine  the  living  again  of  individuals  ;  and,  as  the 
sleep  of  a  million  centuries  is  no  longer  than  an 
hour's  sleep,  that  would  seem  as  if  it  happened  at 
-the  very  hour  of  death,  —  ^'in  a  moment,  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye." 

But  these  dreams  are  carrying  us  too  far.  Let  us 
come  back  to  our  heroic  Israelites,  who  submitted  to 
extreme  tyranny  for  a  Law  whose  entire  recompense 
is  summed  up  in  a  good  old  age.  We  shall  never 
know  all  that  sprang  to  life  during  those  days  when 
Antiochus  Epiphanes  rehearsed  the  part  of  Nero, 
and  by  persecuting  religion  gave  it  strength  and  put 
his  seal  upon  it.  All  birth  is  effected  in  a  crisis  ; 
that  which  was  latent  and  potential  comes  forth 
only  by  pressure  of  the  wedge  of  necessity.  The 
Jewish  faith,  resting  on  the  immoral  doctrine  that  a 
man  on  whom  misfortune  falls  is  guilty,  is  obliged  to 
recede,  to  speak  the  word  which  for  centuries  it  so 
obstinately  refused  to  utter,  —  dSi^  ^^n,  "  life  eternal." 
Faith  in  the  Messiah,  in  the  Apocalypse,  hitherto 
retarded  in  its  growth,  will  henceforward  march  on 
with  giant  strides.  It  is  Christianity,  indeed,  whose 
foundation  has  now  been  laid.  The  two  leading 
ideas  of  Jesus  —  the  kingdom  of  God  and  resurrec- 


288         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 

tion  from  the  dead  —  are  completely  formulated. 
The  martyr-spirit  is  created.  The  mother  and  her 
seven  sons  will  be  known  throughout  the  w^orld,  and 
will  be  considered  exactly  like  Christian  martyrs. 
The  "  abomination  of  desolation  "  has  roused  the  na- 
tion's anger  to  its  height.  All  honour  to  enthusiasm  ! 
All  honour  to  the  martyrs  !  It  is  they  who  free 
humanity  from  all  her  difficulties,  who  speak  boldly 
when  she  cannot  free  herself  from  doubt,  who  teach 
the  true  meaning  of  life,  —  the  pursuit  of  abstract 
ends,  and  the  true  argument  for  immortality. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    NATIONAL    UPRISING. 

Such  changes  are  not  the  work  of  a  day.  Many 
sincere  Jews  under  these  dreadful  circumstances  con- 
tinued to  believe  that  every  one  in  this  life  is 
rewarded  for  his  good  actions.  To  fight  for  his  life, 
for  his  home,  for  his  Law,  and  to  obtain  glory  and 
eternal  remembrance,*  seemed  motives  sufficient  to 
these  men.  "  The  righteous  shall  be  in  everlasting 
remembrance  "  :  what  can  be  more  grand  ?  The  nobil- 
ity of  man  is  that  he  can  be  rewarded  with  words,  — 
his  inconsistency  is  his  glory.  A  doctrine  according 
to  which  man  would  naturally  do  anything  mean 
to  avoid  death  as  the  worst  of  evils,  and  so  save  the 
greatest  good,  —  namely,  life,  —  led  him  instead  to 
heroism  and  martyrdom.  We  have  seen  legions  of 
martyrs  accept  death  for  a  Law  which  the  plainest 
facts  seemed  to  convict  of  falsehood  ;  now  we  shall 
see  legions  of  heroes  rise,  form  themselves  into 
armies,  hope  against  hope,  and  fight  with  as  much 

*  1  Maccabees  ii.  51;  iii.  20,  21.  In  general,  the  first  Book  of  the 
Maccabees  holds  to  the  old  Jewish  point  of  view  on  Messianism,  or  the 
resurrection.  Read  especially  the  few  words  spoken  by  Jadas  Macca- 
beus at  the  moment  of  his  death. 

VOL.  IV.  — 19  / 


290         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

fanaticism  as  if  they  had  the  Christian's  paradise  or 
the  hoiiries  of  Mahomet  in  plain  sight. 

The  levitical  families  were,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
hearthstone  of  Jewish  fanaticism  ;  without  them  it  is 
likely  that  Judaism  and  the  old  Hebrew  scriptures 
might  have  disappeared  under  the  rigours  commanded 
by  the  Syrians.  Among  them  there  were  little 
groups  of  hasidim^  or  pious  men,  living  together  in 
their  poverty,  proud  of  their  exact  observance  of  the 
Law,  contemptuous  of  the  rich,  the  worldly,  and 
those  who  aped  the  manners  of  the  Greeks.  The 
greater  part  of  these  families  quitted  Jerusalem  when 
the  persecution  began,  and  went  to  dwell  in  the 
towns  and  villages  of  Judea.  A  certain  Mattathiah, 
a  priest  of  the  family  of  Joiarib,*  left  Jerusalem  thus 
with  his  five  sons,  and  settled  at  Modin,t  a  village 
near  Lydda,  at  the  foot  of  a  mountain.!  He  had 
also,  it  would  seem,  brothers  who  accompanied  him.§ 
They  were  all  men  of  energy,  whose  sedentary  life 
at  Jerusalem  had  not  stifled  their  bodily  activity,  or 
even  their  military  spirit.  Poverty  had  here  exer- 
cised its  great  privilege   of  keeping  up  their  moral 

*  It  was  a  mistake  to  call  this  family  by  the  name  of  its  most  illus- 
trious member  (Maccabees).  The  books  of  the  Maccabees  do  not 
contain  the  word  Asmonean,  which  appears  in  Josephus,  in  the  Mishna, 
and  in  the  Targums.  Josephus  considers  * Aaa^iajvaios  (rrjaJSTl  or  "'jDiy 
or  -j'OK^i^)  as  the  ereat-grandfather  of  Mattathiah. 

f  Now  El-Me(Jie?i,  or  Hnrbet  el-Medieh,  as  M.  Victor  Gudrin  found 
it. 

X  We  are  not  to  conclude  from  1  Maccabees  ii.  70;  xiii.  25,  that 
Mattathiah  had  landed  property  at  Modin.  These  are  mere  antici- 
patory revisions. 

§  1  Maccabees  ii.  17,  20. 


THE  NATIONAL    UPRISING.  291 

and  physical  vigour.  While  rich  men  were  seduced 
by  alien  manners  and  modes  of  worship,  the  poor 
saved  the  soul  of  Israel,  and  openly  proclaimed  a 
principle  yet  unknown  among  the  Jews,  —  "  We 
must  die  for  the  Law."  It  was  perfectly  logical. 
Was  not  the  old  Torah  in  its  living  portions  a  code 
of  the  rights  of  the  poor,  a  guarantee  that  those 
rights  should  be  perpetually   revived  ? 

One  day  Mattathiah  witnessed  a  dreadful  spectacle. 
An  apostate  Israelite  came  forward  to  offer  sacrifice 
on  the  pagan  altar  which  the  king's  friends  had  set 
up.  An  officer  of  Antiochus  stood  at  the  side  of  the 
altar.  Mattathiah  was  seized  with  terrible  wrath. 
He  sprang  upon  the  Israelite,  killed  him,  killed 
likewise  the  royal  ofiicer,  and  overthrew  the  altar. 
Old  examples  in  sacred  history  ^  seemed  to  authorize 
this  fashion  of  proceeding,  which  so  boldly  placed 
the  interests  of  religion  above  all  law. 

After  this  deed  Mattathiah  had  only  to  take  to 
flight.  He  persuaded  all  who  had  zeal  for  the  Law 
at  heart  to  follow  him  ;  his  sons,  vigorous  and  high- 
tempered,  formed  a  firm  body-guard.  All  took 
refuge  in  the  wild  mountains  of  Judea,  formerly  the 
scene  of  David's  adventurous  life,  and  soon  to  be 
witness  of  the  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist.  They 
took  with  them  their  wives,  their  children,  and  their 
flocks  and  herds  ;  the  caves  in  that  region  offered 
them  an  asylum,  and  at  least  they  were  safe  from 
the   odious  authority  of  the  Syrians. 

*  Numbers  xxv. 


292         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Many  other  Jews  had  taken  the  same  resolve,  and 
soon  the  wilderness  of  Judea  was  almost  peopled 
with  hasidim.*  The  Syrians  attacked  them,  and 
were  greatly  favoured  by  the  ill-advised  scruple, 
w^iich  forbade  the  Jews  to  defend  themselves  on  the 
Sabbath-day.  Mattathiah,  it  appears,  was  dissatis- 
fied with  this  extreme  scrupulosity,  and  made  it  a 
rule  that  fighting  for  the  Law  was  not  to  violate 
the  Sabbath.  The  fanaticism  of  these  refugees  was 
frightful  ;  what  they  sought  was  to  kill,  not  the 
Syrians,  but  the  renegade  Jews.  Mattathiah  went 
throughout  all  Judea,  overthrowing  altars,  slaughter- 
ing apostates,  and  circumcising  by  force  children 
whose  parents  had  not  dared  to  fulfil  the  rite.  The 
greater  part  of  those  who  had  shown  a  yielding  tem- 
per fled,  from  these  madmen,  and  sought  refuge  with 
the  Syrians  in  Akra.  Others,  through  hypocrisy  or 
hesitation,  received  the  insurgents  favourably,  and 
when  they  thought  they  were  the  stronger  took 
their  part.t 

Old  Mattathiah,  feeling  his  end  draw  near  (167 
B.  c),  appointed  (it  is  said)  his  son  Simon,  surnamed 
Thassiy  to  take  the  lead  in  counsel,  and  his  son 
Judas  to  be  military  chief.  The  family  remained 
closely  united  at  a  time  when  fratricidal  disputes 
were  the  scourge  of  reigning  families.  John  sur- 
named Gaddis,  Eleazar  surnamed  Avaran,  and  Jona- 

*  1  Maccabees  ii.  42.     'AaiSnicoi/  is  the  true  reading. 
t  This  is  the  sense  of  mpSpSnn  0^:31  DH'*?;;  j1^:i,  Daniel  xi.  34. 
"  Many  shall  cleave  to  them  with  flatteries." 


THE  NATIONAL    UPRISING.  293 

than  surnamed  Happous^  figured  in  due  season 
beside  their  brothers,  and  helped  them  in  their 
work  ;  and  there  was  never  among  them  the  smallest 
sign  of  rivalry. 

Much  the  most  celebrated  man  of  the  family  was 
Judas,  known  by  the  name  of  Maqqahdi  (Maccabeus) 
the  meaning  of  which  is  probably  the  "  Hammer  of 
God."  *  He  was  a  genuine  man  of  war-,  with  courage 
at  once  daring  and  cool,  devoted  to  his  cause  like  a 
fanatic,  and  apparently  void  of  all  personal  ambition. 
We  are  so  little  fond  of  fanatics  that  such  a  char- 
acter rarely  enlists  our  sympathies.  On  the  other 
hand,  great  deeds  in  history  absolutely  without  self- 
interest  are  so  very  rare  that  it  would  impoverish 
our  human  Pantheon  to  exclude  such  men.  Judas 
Maccabeus  took  no  part  in  politics;  he  left  that 
share  of  the  work  to  his  brother  Simon.  He  was 
content  to  conquer  and  to  die.  All  honour  to  Judas  ! 
He  was  a  saint.  He  had  all  the  qualities  and  all 
the  faults  of  greatness  founded  upon  faith.  Such 
greatness  surpasses  in  devotion  anything  attainable 
by  mere  reason.  But,  then,  we  think  of  stains  that 
we  cannot  pardon,  —  the  contempt  of  others'  liberty 
even  in  the  act  of  defending  liberty  itself.  Most  as- 
suredly, the  officers  of  Antiochus  were  wholly  wrong 
in  forcing  these  poor  Jews  to  offer  sacrifice  to  their 
Jupiter.     It  was  Mattathiah's  perfect  right,  it   was 

*  The  final  mos  seems  to  suppose  a  final  "*  — ,  like  13;!"'  for  TT'IDJ', 
^DID  for  n'31£3.  It  is  a  very  common  practice  in  the  Books  of  Chroni- 
cles. If  the  sm-name  of  Judas  had  been  simply  nUpD,  the  Greek 
transcription  would  have  been  MaKKÔ^aç. 


294         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

even  his  duty,  to  refuse  this  for  himself.  But  he 
had  no  right  to  kill  one  who  was  less  of  a  hero  than 
himself.  Every  one  is  judge  of  his  own  conscience; 
he  may  not  impose  its  dictates  upon  others. 

We  hasten  to  say,  however,  that  under  these  con- 
ditions there  would  be  no  religious  heroes.  Godfrey 
of  Bouillon,  Simon  de  Montfort,  or  Charles  of  Anjou 
required  to  believe  that  their  enemies  were  doomed 
to  hell.  \Ye  are  too  liberal,  too  well  brought  up, 
to  express  ourselves  with  the  same  conviction.  I 
think  that  M.  de  Mun  *  is  at  least  five-sixths  in  the 
wrong.  But  my  philosophy  also  teaches  me  that 
he  must  be  one-sixth  right  ;  and  if  I  had  one  of  his 
partisans  before  me,  my  good  breeding  would  oblige 
me  to  seek  out  this  sixth,  in  which  I  might  fully 
agree  with  him.  It  was  well  that  Judas  Maccabeus 
was  not  so  well-bred.  He  was  surely  a  pillar  in  the 
world's  history  ;  he  saved  Judaism,  he  saved  the 
Bible,  which  would  both  have  been  lost  but  for  him. 
Even  if  mankind  shall  hereafter  completely  reject 
faith  in  Judaism  and  Christianity  as  an  error,  he 
will  not  merely  be  one  of  those  great  reactionaries 
who  were  purely  and  simply  deceived,  —  he  will 
have  been  one  of  the  world's  necessary  heroes  ;  he 
will  have  saved  one  of  the  disciplines  which  have 
best  served  the  education  of  mankind. 

Desperate  men  who  are   ready  to    sacrifice   their 
lives,  resolved   to  take  no  account  of   the  laws   of 
possibility,  —  who  look  on  death,  nay,  even  on  de- 
*  The  Legitimist  leader  in  France.  —  Tr. 


THE  NATIONAL    UPRISING.  295 

feat,  as  an  advantage,  —  are  generally  scourges  to 
the  nations  whose  cause  they  defend  ;  but  sometimes 
they  are  in  the  right.  Judas  Maccabeus  had  no 
regular  force  to  oppose  to  the  well-disciplined  Syrian 
legions  ;  but  yet  he  dared  to  measure  himself  against 
them.*"  In  a  first  battle,  probably  fought  near  Jeru- 
salem, Apollonius  was  killed  ;  Judas  took  his  sword, 
w^hich  served  him  ever  after  in  all  his  battles.  The 
hasidini  had  scarcely  any  arms;  but  the  spoils  of 
the  vanquished  supplied  them.  Seron,  general-in- 
chief  of  the  Syrians,  put  a  second  army  in  the  field  : 
Judas  cut  it  to  pieces  in  the  defiles  of  Beth-horon. 
His  activity  never  slackened.  He  went  from  village 
to  village,  gathering  up  all  who  had  not  apostatized. 
Throwing  himself  suddenly  by  night  upon  the  dis- 
loyal villages,  he  would  set  them  on  fire,  supply 
himself  with  provisions,  and  massacre  the  apostates. 
Throughout  the  land  nothing  was  talked  of  but  his 
exploits  ;  to  some  he  was  an  object  of  terror,  to 
others  of  joy  and  hope.t 

This  lasted  about  two  years.  During  this  time 
Judas  and  his  companions  were  becoming  trained 
soldiers.  The  Syrians  had  never  really  struck  root 
in  the  country.  The  Temple  had  fallen  into  great 
dilapidation. I  The  renegades  founded  nothing.  The 
difficulties  of  the  lavish  and  short-sighted  adminis- 
tration of  Antiochus  became  more  and  more  serious. 

*  1  Maccabees  iii.  10-12. 
f  2  Maccabees  viii.  1,  &c. 
X  1  Maccabees  iv.  37,  &c. 


296         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

The  revolt  in  Judea  was  a  fact  of  public  consequence. 
It  was  necessary  to  suppress  it.*  But  the  treasury 
was  empty.  The  taxes  in  the  eastern  provinces  of 
the  empire  —  Babylonia,  Elymais,  and  Media  —  were 
in  arrears,  probably  because  the  Parthians  had  seized 
these  provinces.  One  piece  of  bad  news  succeeded 
another  from  the  East.t  Antiochus  resolved  upon 
a  great  expedition  in  that  quarter.  At  his  departure 
(166  B.  c.)  he  conferred  a  sort  of  vice-royalty  for  his 
provinces  west  of  the  Euphrates  on  a  certain  Lysias, 
who  appears  to  have  been  nearly  connected  with 
the  royal  family  of  Syria. 

*  1  Maccabees  iii.  27,  &c.     Tacitus,  Hist.  v.  8. 
t  Daniel  xi.  41. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE    BOOK   OF    DANIEL. 

Those  who  neither  took  sword  in  hand  for  the 
salvation  of  Israel,  nor  took  up  the  life  of  brigands, 
endeavoured  by  preaching  and  writing  to  animate 
the  zeal  of  their  co-religionists  and  to  keep  up  their 
hopes.  One  book  of  this  time  was  of  especially 
important  consequence,  and  won  from  the  first  its 
place  in  the  sacred  canon,  which  might  have  been 
thought  to  be  definitively  closed. 

Among  the  mythic  names  of  ancient  sages  who 
had  kept  unimpaired  their  Israelite  superiority  while 
passing  their  lives  among  the  heathen,  shone  in  the 
first  rank  the  name  of  Daniel.*^  No  other  man  had 
entered  so  deeply  into  the  purposes  of  God.t  It  was 
this  seer,  faithful  to  the  Law  and  pre-eminent  for 
wisdom,  that  some  pious  writer  now  resuscitated  to 
console  his  afflicted  people,  —  to  show  them  the  end 
they  were  approaching,  and  to  make  the  splendours 
of  the  future  gleam  before  their  eyes.$ 

*  See  vol.  iii.  p.  112. 

f  Daniel  =  *'  God's  judge,"  —judex  Dei,  qui  Jiabet  judicia  Dei. 
X  There  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  modern  authorship  of  this  book. 
Sirach  does  not  speak  of  Daniel,  in  a  place  in  which  he  would  certainly 


298         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

It  was  imagined  that  having  been  brought  when 
a  child  out  of  Judea,  in  the  captivity  of  Jehoiachin, 
Daniel  was  brought  up  together  with  three  com- 
panions in  the  service  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  court. 
The  four  young  lads  in  this  realm  of  iniquity  show 
surprising  skill  in  never  violating  the  Law,  in  never 
eating  forbidden  meats,  and  never  taking  part  in 
heathen  sacrifices.  The  Law  is  a  marvellous  thing, 
even  if  we  only  consider  its  rules  of  health.  The 
little  Jews,  notwithstanding  their  abstinence,  are 
found  fairer  and  fatter  than  the  children  educated 
with  them.  Thrown  into  a  furnace  because  they 
would  not  join  in  an  act  of  idolatry,  the  fire  does 
not  harm  them  :  they  walk  in  the  midst  of  the 
flames,  and  in  this  situation  compose  prayers  and 
hymns."*  The  wisdom  of  young  Daniel  is  prodi- 
gious. He  alone  can  interpret  the  strange  dream 
of  Nebuchadnezzar  ;  and  he  is  placed  at  the  head 
of  the  diviners  of  Babylon.  Again,  under  Darius 
the  Mede,  who  is  one  day  taken  by  the  fancy  to 
compel  the  religious  unity  of  his  empire  (the  same 
thing  that  was  attempted  by  Antiochus),  Daniel  is 
flung  into  a  den  of  lions,  where  no  harm  happens 
to  him  ;  and  Darius  makes  an  edict  that  in  all  his 

have  spoken  of  him  had  he  known  (Ecclesiasticus  xlix.).  Persian  and 
Greek  words  in  the  book  are  numerous,  —  ni^D  ("Chaldean  "),  taken 
in  the  sense  of  "  magician,"  &c. 

*  The  prayer  of  Azarias  has  only  come  down  to  us  in  Greek,  but  it 
did  exist  in  the  Hebrew  from  which  it  has  been  taken.  Notice  the 
evident  rent  in  the  narrative:  chap,  iii.,  verses  24,  25,  allude  to  verses 
22-26  in  the  Greek.  Concerning  the  "  Song  of  the  Three  Holy  Chil- 
dren," cf.  p.  283,  note  %. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  299 

dominions  men  should  ''  tremble  and  fear  before  the 
God  of  Daniel." 

For  those  who  are  not  familiar  with  historical 
criticism  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  pre- 
sents an  inexplicable  psychological  phenomenon. 
His  ignorance  of  the  history  of  the  later  centuries 
seems  inconceivable,  if  we  do  not  realise  how  com- 
pletely the  Jews  were  wanting  in  annals  for  these 
four  hundred  years.  People  seem  to  fancy  that  all 
centuries  have  possessed  historical  handbooks  and 
dictionaries,  and  they  do  not  understand  the  guess- 
work of  a  writer  who  is  speaking  of  the  past,  when 
he  has  nothing  of  the  kind  to  assist  him.  As  for 
Nebuchadnezzar,  the  author  of  "  Daniel  "  is  supported 
by  ancient  Hebrew  documents  ;  but  he  has  no  idea 
whatever  concerning  the  end  of  the  Assyrian  empire, 
or  of  the  Persian  epoch.  And,  in  truth,  he  does  not 
care  ;  he  only  wants  pretexts  for  allusions.  Chro- 
nology is  as  unimportant  to  him  as  it  is  to  a  preacher 
who  tells  little  stories  to  brighten  up  his  catechising, 
and  to  edify  his  hearers.  After  Nebuchadnezzar 
comes  a  certain  Belshazzar,  a  personage  purely  ficti- 
tious, who  takes  a  fancy  to  give  a  feast,  using  the 
sacred  vessels  from  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem  (this 
also  is  one  of  the  misdeeds  of  Antiochus).  Myste- 
rious Chaldean  words  appear  written  on  the  wall  ;  * 
and  in  fact  that  very  night  he  is  slain,  and  Darius 
the  Mede,t  the  son  of  Xerxes,  (!)  takes  his  place. 

*  |'D'^£)1  Spn  njD.     These   are  the  words   seen  on   the   balances. 
See  Clermont-Ganneau.     Rec.  d^Archeol.  orientale,  t.  i.  pp.  139,  159. 
t  It  is  really  Darius  son  of  Hystaspes,  whom  the  author  considers 


300         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL. 

The  successor  of  Darius  is  said  to  be  Cyrus  the 
Persian.  The  author  knows  only  four  kings  of 
Persia,  *  —  Cyrus,  Darius  son  of  Hystaspes,  Xerxes, 
and  Darius  Codomanus.  He  really  knows  in  detail 
only  the  history  of  the  fifty  years  before  he  wrote, 
after  the  death  of  Antiochus  the  Great  ;  t  all  the  rest 
is  but  the  fancy  of  a  Jewish  liagada  pushed  to  an 
extreme,  with  no  regard  to  probability  or  even  pos- 
sibility. Nebuchadnezzar,  because  of  his  pride,  is 
changed  into  a  beast  for  seven  years  ;  then,  having 
given  glory  to  God,  he  regains  his  reason  and  his 
dominions,  which  during  these  seven  years  have 
patiently  awaited  his  recovery  !  The  intellectual 
culture  of  those  to  whom  such  a  book  was  addressed 
must  have  been  wretched. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  this  author  was  the  his- 
torian who  was  the  master  of  Bossuet,  and  Bossuet 
was  once  our  master  in  history.  Adopted  by  Bossuet 
into  his  "  Histoire  Universelle,"  the  philosophy  of 
history  in  the  book  of  Daniel  has  come  down  to  our 
own  day,  at  least  in  France,  as  the  basis  of  the  phi- 
losophy of  history  officially  taught.  This  surely  is 
an  excess  of  university  classicism.  In  one  very  real 
sense,  however,  the  Book  of  Daniel  was  the  first 
attempt  at  a  philosophy  of  history.  The  idea  of  a 
plan  in  history  demands,  as  we  think,  many  expla- 
nations.    It  is  nevertheless   true.     For   the  will   of 

the  founder  of  the  Medo-Persian  empire.     The  Greeks  also  called  the 
"wars  of  Darius  Median  wars  (Cf.  2  Stephanus,  Thesaurus:  MtjOlkOs). 
[Darius  is  called  "Son  of  Ahasuerus  "  (Xerxes),  chap.  ix.  1.] 
*  Chap.  vii.  6;  xi.  2.  t  Chap.  xi.  xii. 


'       THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL.  301 

God  and  "the  decree  of  the  Watchers"  =^  we  substi- 
tute the  universal  force,  the  hidden  source  of  life 
and  progress,  that  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  evolution. 
As  Bossuet  says  truly  :  "  All  is  surprising  if  we  look 
only  at  the  special  causes  ;  yet  all  goes  on  according* 
to  a  regular  plan."  t 

History  therefore  is  a  process  which  we  must 
explain  as  a  living  whole.  The  half-crazy  Jew  who 
has  told  us  his  dreams  on  this  matter  was  far  infe- 
rior to  the  Greeks  in  tbe  quality  and  culture  of  his 
mind  ;  but  religious  emotion  suggests  to  him  what 
the  Greeks  almost  never  had^  —  namely,  a  fellow- 
feeling  for  humanity.  To  him  the  development  of 
humanity  is  a  drama  conducted  by  the  Eternal  to  a 
certain  end.  The  final  goal  of  humanity  is  what  he 
sees  ;  and  in  this  he  probably  sees  the  truth. 

The  historic  theory  of  Daniel  starts  from  the 
dream  of  Nebuchadnezzar.  The  king  has  dreamed 
of  a  colossal  statue,  whose  head  was  of  gold,  the 
arms  and  breast  of  silver,  the  belly  and  the  thighs 
of  brass,  the  legs  of  iron,  the  feet  part  iron  and  part 
clay.  A  stone  thrown  by  no  man's  hand  strikes  it, 
and  it  is  crushed.  The  stone  that  has  struck  the 
image  becomes  a  mountain,  which  fills  the  whole 
earth.  The  four  metals  are  four  empires,  —  the 
Assyrian,  the  Medo-Persian,  the  empire  of  Alexander, 
and  the  empire  of  the  Seleucidae  as  it  was  under 

*  Daniel  iv.  17. 

\  Bossuet,  Discours  sur  V Histoire  universelle,  iii.  8. 

X  Except  Polybius,  the  contemporary  of  our  Jew. 


302         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Antiochus.*  The  stone,  the  supernatural  instrument 
to  destroy  the  empire  of  Antiochus,  is  the  little 
Jewish  revolt  which  is  destined  to  change  the  face  of 
the  world..  There  will  no  longer  be  an  empire  great 
like  those  four  ;  for  the  kingdom  of  the  Jews  shall 
be  everlasting,  and  shall  never  be  replaced  by  any 
other. 

A  succession  of  visions  t  makes  the  author's  idea 
clearer  still.  The  four  empires  of  the  dream  are 
here  represented,  first,  as  four  beasts,  who  come 
forth  out  of  the  sea,  —  a  lion,  with  wings  like  an 
eagle  ;  a  bear  ;  a  panther  ;  and  a  terrible  beast 
having  teeth  of  iron  and  ten  horns,^  in  the  midst 
of  which  rises  a  little  horn,  which  speaks  blasphemy 
(Antiochus),  tries  to  change  religion,  makes  war  on 
the  saints,  and  has  the  advantage  until  the  solemn 
moment  comes  when  the  empire  shall  be  given  to 
them.  This  mighty  act  of  Providence  is  making 
ready.  The  thrones  are  prepared  ;  an  old  man  (the 
Ancient  of  Days)  takes  his  seat  thereon  amid  floods 
of  light;  myriads  upon  myriads  surround  him;  the 
judgment  is  set,  and  the  books  are  opened.  The 
beast  with  ten  horns  is  killed  ;   his  carcass  is  cast 

*  The  calculation  is  sometimes  made  differently,  —  the  Assyrian, 
Median,  Persian,  and  Greek  empires.  But  he  who  sees  the  visions 
does  not  distinguish  between  that  of  the  INledes  and  that  of  the 
Persians  (observe  viii.  20).  He  distinguishes,  however,  between  the 
empire  of  Alexander  and  that  of  the  Seleucidae,  though  the  latter 
proceeded  from  Alexander,     (xi.  2,  &c.) 

t  Chap,  vii.,  &c, 

X  In  the  symbolism  of  Apocalyptic  writings,  when  a  horned  head 
signifies  an  empire,  each  horn  denotes  a  sovereign. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  303 

into  the  fire.  Then  appears  in  heaven  a  super- 
natural being  like  unto  a  Son  of  Man,"^  —  that  is  to 
say,  like  a  man  ;  he  is  brought  before  the  old  man. 
To  him  is  given  an  everlasting  kingdom,  to  be 
shared  by  all  those  who  serve  him  ;  his  kingdom  is 
a  kingdom  without  change,  a  kingdom  that  shall 
never  pass  away;  his  reign  shall  endure  for  ages 
upon  ages. 

When  will  that  great  day  of  divine  judgment 
come  ?  On  this  point  the  author  is  designedly 
enigmatical.  His  numerical  combination,  however, 
appears  to  signify  three  years  and  a  half,t  a  time 
not  long  to  wait  for.  Yet  a  little  patience,  and  the 
everlasting  kingdom  will  be  established. 

This  empire,  not  represented  like  the  others  under 
the  form  of  a  beast,  but  by  the  most  noble  of  forms, 
that  of  man,  is  the  Jewish  empire,  the  empire 
of  the  saints.  It  may  also,  if  you  like,  be  called  the 
kingdom  of  the  Messiah,  the  everlasting  representa- 
tive of  the  triumph  of  the  Jews.  The  expression 
"  Son  of  Man  "  was  soon  misunderstood,  and  became 
a  synonym  of  the  Messiah  ;  so  that,  it  is  said,  "  Son 
of  Man  "  became  the  especial  title  by  which  Jesus 
called  himself 4  Paradoxes  and  equivocal  phrases 
are  generally  the  steps  that  lead  to  dogma.  To  the 
author  of  the  Book  of  Daniel,  who  has  only  a  vague 

*  In  the  language  of  that  time,  especially  in  Aramean  tongues, 
DlK-j3  ("  son  of  man  ")  means  simply  "a  man." 

t  Chap.  vii.  Compare  Revelation  xi.  2;  xii.  14;  xiii.  5;  where  the 
same  formula  is  interpreted  as  forty-two  months. 

X  See  the  Vie  de  Jésus,  pp.  131,  &c.,  284,  &c. 


304         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

idea  of  the  Messiah,  the  "  Son  of  Man  "  represents 
only  the  divine  kingdom  which  will  be  established  in 
Jerusalem  when  the  followers  of  Judas  Maccabeus 
shall  have  destroyed  the  kingdom  of  the  Seleucidae. 
Then  will  the  last  great  kingdom  be  established,  and 
there  will  justice  reign. 

In  another  vision*  a  ram  represents  the  Persian 
empire.  A  he-goat  comes  out  of  the  West,  without 
touching  the  earth  ;  he  kills  the  ram,  and  tramples 
on  him.  The  he-goat  is  Alexander,  whose  empire  is 
divided  into  four  kingdoms.  From  one  of  these  four 
kingdoms  proceeds  a  sovereign  mad  with  pride,  who 
desires  to  make  war  on  God,  overthrows  his  sanctu- 
ary, massacres  his  saints,  and  suspends  the  daily  sac- 
rifice. How  long  will  this  horrible  time  last,  —  this 
reign  of  the  abomination  of  desolation  ?  t  The  du- 
ration of  the  scandal  is  fixed  at  two  thousand  three 
hundred  evenings  and  mornings  (the  taimid  was  cele- 
brated evening  and  morning),  which  makes  one  thou- 
sand one  hundred  and  fifty  days,  a  result  (according 
to  the  approximative  arithmetic  used  by  the  author) 
about  the  same  with  the  previous  three  and  a  half 
years.  To  about  the  same  time  amounts  a  calculation 
by  a  week  of  years,  where  î  the  interval  between  the 
close  of  the  high-priesthood  (the  death  of  Onias),§  the 
cessation  of  the  tamid,  the  installation  of  the  idol 
(the  abomination  of  desolation),  and  the  end  of  these 

*  Chap.  viii. 

t  See  above  p.  272. 

X  Chap.  ix. 

§  Daniel  ix.  26.     Instead  of  lb  j'K,  read  rz  3'«. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  305 

abominations  is  reckoned  at  half  a  week  of  years,  — 
that  is  to  say,  three  years  and  a  half,  the  "  week  " 
being  seven  years. 

The  last  vision  ^  is  very  strange.  It  is  history 
told  in  dark  words  of  the  East,  from  the  close  of  the 
Persian  empire  to  the  time  of  writing.  All  that  con- 
cerns Antiochus  Epiphanes  t  is  told  at  length.  This 
sovereign  is  spoken  of  as  the  worst  of  men,  —  igno- 
ble, perfidious,  unmoved  by  any  feeling  but  that  of 
pride,  faithless  even  to  the  gods  of  his  fathers,  for 
whom  he  wishes  to  substitute,  out  of  flattery  to 
the  Romans,  a  strange  god,  the  Capitoline  Jupiter.  | 
The  Jewish  fanatic  exults  over  his  defeats,  and 
the  insults  put  upon  him  by  the  Romans.  §  The 
monster  is  destroyed.  Bad  news  reaches  him  from 
all  sides.  He  sets  out  furiously.  He  goes  to  meet 
his  end.     No  one  will  help  him.|| 

All  at  once,  in  fact,  the  horizon  of  the  scene  con- 
tracts. The  author  passes  from  things  that  have 
happened  to  conjectures  as  to  things  that  are  to 
come  :  — 

And  in  that  time  shall  Michael^  stand  up,  the  great 
Prince  [archangel]  which  standeth  for  the  children  of  thy 
people  ;  and  there  shall  be  a  time  of  trouble,  such  as  never 
was  since  there  was  a  nation  ;  and  at  that  time  thy  people 

*  Chaps.  X.  xi.  xii. 
f  From  xi.  21. 

X  Dan.  xi.  38,  39,  —  a  very  obscure  passage. 
§  xi.  20. 

II  Chap.  xi.  14  and  45.  At  times  it  would  seem  as  if  the  author 
knew  of  the  death  of  Antiochus  in  the  East. 

\  The  great  revealer  is  here  supposed  to  speak. 

VOL.  IV.  —  20 


3o6         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

slmll  be  delivered,  every  one  that  shall  be  found  written  in 
the  book.*  And  many  of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of 
the  earth  shall  awake,  some  to  everlasting  lite,  and  some  to 
shame  and  everlasting  contempt.  And  they  that  be  wise 
shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament  ;  and  they 
that  turn  many  to  righteousness,  as  the  stars  for  ever  and 
ever. 

But  thou,  0  Daniel,  hide  the  words,  and  seal  the  book 
even  unto  the  time  of  the  end.  Many  shall  run  to  and  fro, 
[read  ?]  f  and  knowledge  shall  be  increased. 

In  a  last  epilogue,!  the  time  of  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  prophecy  is  again  fixed,  —  first,  at  three 
years  and  a  half  ;  secondly,  at  one  thousand  two  hun- 
dred and  ninety  days,  which  is  about  the  same  thing. 

Such  is  this  extraordinary  book,  —  a  strange  mix- 
ture of  the  sublime  and  the  commonplace,  the  out- 
come of  intellectual  abasement  and  of  the  most 
profound  moral  movement  that  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  It  puts  those  rhetoricians  who  at  a  glance  set 
a  well-written  phrase  above  an  ill-written  one,  com- 
pletely at  fault. 

The  Book  of  Daniel  is  the  best  example  we  have 
of  the  alternation  there  is  in  the  history  of  man  be- 
tween intellect  and  morality.  Compared  with  Isaiah, 
the  Book  of  Daniel  shows  complete  literary  falling 
off.  Its  language  is  detestable,  —  flat,  prolix,  incor- 
rect, and  sometimes  untranslatable  ;  and  yet  Jewish 
thought  has  made  in  these  few  ill-written  pages  mar- 

*  Cf.  Isaiah  iv.  3,  —  all  those  whom  God  has  predestined  not  to 
be  killed. 

f  Beaucoup  le  liront  et  V intelligence  s* augmentera  (in  the  French). 
X  Chap.  xii.  5-13. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL,  307 

velloiis  progress  :  it  has  passed  beyond  its  first  stage, 
which  is  simply  monotheistic,  to  its  Messianic  stage, 
in  which  it  has  charmed  all  mankind  by  the  offer  of 
infinite  hope.  All  things  are  born  out  of  corruption. 
The  decay  of  one  thing  is  the  beginning  of  another. 
The  literary  weakness  of  a  work  is  no  reason  why  it 
may  not  have  a  foremost  part  to  play  in  the  history 
of  mankind.  The  Christian  Scriptures,  so  very  poor 
in  the  eyes  of  those  who  take  for  their  highest 
type  of  excellence  the  writers  of  some  great  literary 
period,  are  profound  and  touching  when  one  looks  on 
them  as  writings  for  the  people. 

Ezekiel  and  Zechariah  had  already  substituted  for 
the  old  prophetic  visions,  so  clear  and  in  a  certain 
sense  so  classical,  a  style  of  vision  far  more  complex. 
Since  the  Captivity  no  prophet  had  spoken  his  proph- 
ecies in  the  open  air.  Reading  is  not  the  same  thing 
as  hearing.  In  reading  we  put  up  with  enigmas 
that  need  reflection,  with  elaborated  riddles,  in  which 
ideas  are  forced  together  without  any  thought  of 
coherence.  In  Daniel  this  fault  is  carried  to  an 
extreme  :  a  horn  speaks,  and  has  eyes.  There  is 
nothing  artistic  in  the  composition  of  these  puzzles, 
which  serve  to  express  the  writer's  thought.  There 
is  everywhere  incongruity,  the  very  opposite  of  the 
Greek  laws  of  harmony.  That  sense  of  the  divinity 
revealed  in  the  human  form  set  forth  in  Greek  sculp- 
ture is  completely  wanting.  The  fanatical  author  of 
these  visions  has  but  one  thing  in  view,  —  to  stamp 
his  thought  in  by  rude  force  ;  to  make  a  powerful 


3o8         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

impression  on  his  reader.  In  this  he  has  succeeded  ; 
and  no  doubt  he  was  a  witness  of  the  extraordinary 
impression  produced  by  his  work. 

Its  success  was  immediate*  and  immense.  The 
taste  of  the  time  in  Grecian  countries — in  Egypt, 
for  example  —  and  in  Eastern  lands  was  for  sibyl- 
line enigmas  on  the  political  events  of  the  day. 
They  fancied  these  petty  riddles  ;  it  was  a  recrea- 
tion to  make  out  their  meaning.  Oracles  delivered 
in  that  manner  had  great  publicity.  They  circula,ted 
promptly;  they  were  even  bought  and  sold.f  The 
strong  sectarian  temper  among  the  Jews  made  it 
easy  to  circulate  these  occult  writings,  which  passed 
clandestinely  from  hand  to  hand. 

In  this  way  the  Book  of  Daniel  spread  everywhere. 
Aramean  and  Greek  translations  put  it  at  once 
within  reach  of  every  reader. |  All  those  whose 
views  and  opinions  tended  towards  Messianic  belief 
made  it  their  constant  reading.  The  orthodox  syna- 
gogue itself  received  it  among  the  sacred  writings, 

*  The  Book  of  Daniel  was  soon  quoted:  Baruch  i.  15-18;  Carm. 
sibylL,  iii.  396-400;  1  Maccabees  ii.  59,  60;  Josephus,  Antiquities^  x. 
X.  xi.  ;  xi.  viii.  5. 

t  Alexander,  Orac.  SibylL,  ii.  314-323,  562-567. 

%  In  its  present  state  the  book  is  a  mixture  of  Hebrew  and  Chal- 
dean. This  has  no  critical  importance  ;  it  only  arises  from  an  acci- 
dent coeval  with  its  origin.  Some  copyist,  fancying  that  Aramean 
was  the  language  of  the  old  Chaldeans,  thought  proper  (in  v.  4  of 
chap,  ii.)  to  give  the  discourse  of  the  Chaldeans  as  he  supposed  in 
their  original  language,  which  he  copied  from  the  Aramean  Targum. 
ri'D'l5<  was  no  doubt  not  in  the  original  text;  it  is  a  marginal  note,  or 
else  a  head-line.  Then  the  copyist  went  on  copying  from  the  Targum, 
and  did  not  return  to  Hebrew  till  chap.  viii.  See  p.  2,  secoivi  note, 
the  same  thing  in  the  Book  of  Ezra. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  309 

without,  however,  including  it  in  the  vokime  of  the 
Prophets.  Jesus  must  have  been  well-read  in  this 
as  well  as  in  the  Book  of  Enoch  ;  from  these  he 
took  his  leading  ideas  and  forms  of  speech,  especially 
the  phrase  "  Son  of  Man.''  The  early  Christians  fed 
upon  it,  and  drew  arguments  from  it  in  favour  of 
his  messiahship."^ 

With  this  strange  book  opens  an  entire  literature 
which  lasted  about  four  hundred  years,  and  served 
for  the  expression  of  Jewish  and  Christian  thought 
during  the  period  of  its  torment.     What  is  called 
the  Apocalypse  of  "  John  the  Divine  "  is  of  the  same 
pattern  with  that  so-called  of  Daniel.     It  is  the  same 
with  the  apocalypses  of  Esdras  and  of  Baruch.     The 
essential  feature  of  the  class  is  the  pseudonym,  or,  if 
you  prefer,  the  quahty  of  apocrypha.     Apocalypse, 
as  we  have  often  said,  is  the  prophecy  of  an  age 
when  it  was  not  thought  that  new  prophets  could 
appear.     The  impassioned  man,  who  had  something 
to  say,  had  in  those  days  but  one  course  to  take,  — 
to    assume    the    mantle    of    some   old   prophet   or 
sage;   to   make   his   contemporaries  listen  to  what 
from  his  own  mouth  would  have  had  no  authority. 
Criticism  was  so  completely  wanting  that  the  book 
was  readily  accepted  ;  and,  as  it  answered  the  needs 
of  the  time,  it  made  more  impression  and  was  more 
eagerly  read  than  the  ancient  writings,  which  are  far 

*  Matthew  xxiv.  15,  22.  The  chapter  about  the  weeks  of  years 
became  one  of  the  bases  of  Christian  Apology,  after  the  appearance  of 
the  epistle  attributed  to  Saint  Barnabas. 


3IO         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

nobler  in  form  but  more  difficult  to  understand,  and 
often  out  of  range  with  interests  of  the  moment. 

Compared  to  the  old  Biblical  books,  that  of  Daniel 
seems  the  expression  of  a  new  Judaism,  much  more 
like  the  earliest  Christian  writings  than  those  of  the 
ancient  Hebrews.  Old  Judaism  knows  nothing  of 
eternal  life  or  of  resurrection.  The  Kingdom  of 
God,  Messiahship,  and  the  Last  Judgment  never  take 
in  it  a  concrete  form.  Here,  all  is  fitly  prepared  for 
a  world-wide  faith.  Eternity  plays  little  part  in 
the  ideas  of  the  old  Jews  ;  and  even  in  this  we 
must  not  be  misled  by  the  strongest  expressions.*  In 
later  times  writers  of  apocalyptic  visions  will  put 
limits  to  the  reign  of  the  Messiah,  —  a  thousand 
years  in  the  Apocalypse  of  Saint  John,  four  hundred 
in  that  of  Esdras.  The  author  of  Daniel  did  not 
think  of  this.  He  stops  short  at  the  victory  of  the 
saints,  and  considers  the  condition  of  our  race  reached 
at  that  moment  as  fixed. 

From  Daniel  to  the  Gospels  and  Saint  Paul  the 
doctrine  of  the  Messiah  went  on  completing  itself  by 
several  necessary  additions.  The  word  "  Messiah  '' 
is  not  in  Daniel. t  The  singular  expression  "  Son  of 
Man  "  \  has  not  yet  received  its  mystic  sense.  What 
is  exclusively  the  property  of  the  book  is  the  Man 

*  "t|*l  dSi|'S  &c.  I""  for  ever  and  ever"  (Dan.  xii.  3),  rendered  by 
the  Vulgate  in  perpétuas  œternitates']. 

t  The  word  n'î!/D  (ix.  26)  does  not  refer  to  the  Messiah.  It  alludes 
to  the  authority,  probably  sacerdotal,  of  Judea.  n'^D'  does  not  mean 
"  will  be  slain  "  (occidetur),  but  "  will  be  suppressed." 

X  See  previous  pages  303,  304. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL.  311 

clothed  in  linen; ''^  the  great  revealing  Angel  of  the 
last  three  chapters.  This  angel  resembles  the  su- 
preme genius  among  the  Elkesaites  t  of  Hermas,  or 
the  venerable  angel  of  the  Gnostics,  —  who  is  not  God, 
but  who  acts  as  an  intermediary  between  God  and 
the  world,  and  is  always  imagined  under  the  human 
form.  Monotheism  was  growing  pliant,  and  was 
losing  its  former  rigidity.  A  sort  of  polytheism,  or 
mythology  composed  of  angels  and  divine  impersona- 
tions, was  making  its  way  \  supernatural  personages, 
who  were  not  God,  were  taking  shape.  Later,  they 
will  be  called  Son,  Word,  Christ  ;  but  centuries  were 
yet  to  pass  before  any  would  dare  to  make  them 
equal  with  the  Father.  The  '^  Ancient  of  Days  "  :j: 
was  long  to  sit  alone  upon  his  throne.  The  Son 
would  not  supplant  him  till  after  the  complete 
victory  of   Jesus. 

The  Book  of  Daniel  is  in  truth  the  ^gg  containing 
Christianity,  the  yolk  by  which  it  was  first  nour- 
ished. It  marks  the  line  between  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  ;  in  it  invincible  hope  becomes  resurrec- 
tion ;  the  ideal  of  the  future  is  Messiahship  ;  the 
"Day  of  the  Lord'*  is  eschatology.  Here,  too, 
the  doctrine  of  angels  has  remarkable  development. 
The  ancient  prophets  made  very  little  use  of  the 

*  Cf.  Ezekiel  ix.  2. 

f  Jewish  Christians  of  the  second  century,  of  Gnostic  tendency. 

X  I'DV  p'n;'.  Daniel  vii.  9.  It  is  possible  that  this  expression  may 
have  in  Daniel  a  sacramental  sense  ;  and  if  so,  it  should  not  be  trans- 
lated simply  "an  aged  man."  The  Book  of  Enoch  takes  it  in  a 
sacramental  sense,   through  Christian  influence. 


312         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

machinery  of  angels  to  bring  their  visions  to  pass. 
Every  apocalypse,  on  the  contrary,  makes  them  its 
chief  wheelwork.  Daniel  is  possessed  with  them  ; 
his  book  is  a  prelude  to  the  superabinidant  talk  of 
angels  and  demons  in  the  Gospels,  a  displeasing  blot 
upon  their  pages  to  every  cultivated  mind. 

Human  nature  is  so  made  that  the  different  ele- 
ments composing  it  are  hostile  one  to  the  other. 
When  one  part  rises,  another  sinks.  A  very  moral 
people  is  almost  always  opposed  to  science  ;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  I  have  grave  fears  that  what  we  sci- 
entists are  doing  will  not  conduce  much  to  the  moral 
advancement  of  the  masses.  The  popular  morality 
demands  enormous  sacrifices  on  the  part  of  reason  ; 
the  advance  of  reason  harms  the  moral  sense  of  the 
masses,  who  are  governed  by  their  instincts.  The 
Jewish  people  were  toiling  not  on  an  intellectual 
but  a  moral  task.  We  must  not  judge  their  litera- 
ture by  the  rules  of  good  sense  and  literary  taste. 
Absurdity  in  details  should  not  blind  us  to  the 
greatness  of  the  work  :  that  is  as  if,  in  the  history 
of  the  Revolution,  we  should  see  nothing  but  follies, 
puerilities,  and  horrors.  What  is  singular  is  that 
Daniel's  near  predictions  almost  came  to  pass  sooner 
than  he  seems  to  have  expected.  Before  the  three 
years  and  a  half,  or  the  twelve  liundred  and  ninety- 
two  days,*  were  spent,  the  Temple  was  captured 
by  pious  men,  and  the  idol  —  "the  abomination  of 
desolation  "  —  was    swept   away   to    the    dung-heap 

*  Possibly  these  figures  were  retouched  after  the  event. 


THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL.  313 

outside  the  walls  of  Jerusalem.  The  author  of  the 
Book  of  Daniel  was  no  doubt  in  the  band  of  those 
who  made  the  assault.  One  likes  to  think  of  him 
as  living  in  the  immediate  companionship  of  the 
Maccabees. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

VICTORIES  OF  JUDAS  MACCABEUS.  —  THE  JEWISH  WOR- 
SHIP  RESTORED. 

LysiaSj  having  been  invested  by  Antiochus  with 
the  duty  of  suppressing  the  Jewish  revolt,  made 
great  preparations,  and  charged  Ptolemy  son  of 
Dorymenes,  governor  of  Coele-Syria,  to  direct  the 
campaign.  Military  operations  were  confided  to  two 
generals  of  distinction,  Nicanor  and  Gorgias.*  Vic- 
tory appeared  so  certain  that  the  Syrian  camp  was 
crowded  with  slave-merchants  come  to  traffic  in  the 
prisoners  that  were  to  be  taken.  Judas  massed  his 
forces  at  Mizpah.f  They  were  no  longer  bands  of 
fanatics  looking  only  to  die  for  their  Law  ;  they 
were  a  small  army,  well  organized  in  regiments  and 
battalions.  Their  piety  was  fervent  ;  they  made 
ready  for  the  unequal  fight  with  prayer  and  fasting. | 
The  military  manoeuvres  of  Judas  §  were  those 
of  a  true  captain  ;    they  are  admired    to   this   day 

*  1  Maccabees  iii.  38-41;'  2  Maccabees  viii.  8-11. 

t  Neby  Samouil,  about,  a  league  northeast  of  Jerusalem. 

X  Jewish  historians  probably  exaggerate  the  strength  of  the  Syrian 
army.  When  in  front  of  the  entire  Syrian  force  Judas  Maccabeus 
is  always  defeated.     See  below,  end  of  the  chapter. 

§  1  Maccabees  iv.  1-25;  2  Maccabees  viii.  12,  &c.;  Josephus,  An- 
tiquitieSf  xii.  vii.  3,  4. 


VICTORIES  OF  JUDAS  MACCABEUS.  315 

by  military  men.  When  he  learned  that  the  Syrian 
army  had  reached  Emmaus,*  at  the  entrance  of  the 
narrow  passes  which  lead  up  to  the  plateau  of  Jeru- 
salem, he  brought  his  army  close  to  the  enemy 
on  the  south.  The  Jews  were  terrified  at  the  mul- 
titude they  were  to  encounter.  Judas  sent  home 
those  lately  married, t  and  those  who  had  recently 
acquired  landed  property,  fearing  lest  they  should 
prove  faint-hearted  in  the  fight  \  then  he  announced 
that  the  next  morning  at  day-break  he  should  attack 
the  enemy. 

Nicanor  was  informed  of  all  this  by  his  spies. 
He  thought  he  could  carry  the  Jewish  camp  by  a 
surprise  at  night.  Gorgias  was  to  make  the  bold 
attempt.  Judas,  having  heard  of  it,  made  his  men 
take  food  ;  then  ordering  them  to  light  large  fires, 
he  silently  decamped,  and  gained  the  mountains,  — 
thus  approaching  the  main  body  of  the  Syrian  army 
on  the  flank. 

Gorgias  fell  upon  the  Jewish  camp,  which  he 
found  empty.  Thinking  that  the  Jews  had  fled  into 
the  mountains,  he  followed  them  in  hot  pursuit. 
But  Judas,  who  knew  the  country,  had  by  dawn 
come  in  sight  of  the  Syrian  camp.  His  trumpets 
sounded  a  charge  ;  his  Jews  rushed  on  with  fury. 
Small  as  were  their  numbers,  the  complete  surprise 

*  The  Emmaus  here  spoken  of  =  .4wwa.ç  (not  the  Emmaus  of  the 
Gospels)  was  after  a.  d.  223  called  Nicopolis,  in  memory  of  the 
victory  of  Judas  Maccabeus.  {Chron.  pasch.)  Year  223  ;  Saint  Jerome, 
Otiomast.     Julius  Africanus. 

f  The  law  in  Deuteronomy,  xx.  7. 


3i6         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 

of  their  enemy  enabled  them,  after  a  fight  of  a  few 
hours,  to  gain  a  complete  victory.  All  was  over, 
and  the  Syrian  camp  in  flames,  when  Gorgias,  who 
had  scoured  the  hills  without  finding  a  man,  came 
up.  His  soldiers,  filled  with  terror  and  discourage- 
ment, dispersed.     The  booty  was  immense. 

The  effect  of  this  victory  at  Emmaus  (in  the 
spring  of  165  B.  c.)  might  seem  to  be  the  recapture 
of  Jerusalem,  which  the  Jewish  hero  must  have  had 
so  much  at  heart.  But  Judas  saw  that  the  war  in 
the  country  was  not  yet  ended.  Lysias  indeed 
was  not  far  off,*  and  he  at  once  hastened  in  person 
to  avenge  the  check  given  to  his  generals  (autumn 
of  16 5). t  He  was  completely  routed  at  Bethsura 
near  Hebron,  and  returned  to  Antioch  to  a  revenge 
which  was  never  to  come  about. 

Nothing  now  prevented  Judas  Maccabeus  from 
entering  Jerusalem,  and  purging  it  of  the  "  abomi- 
nation of  desolation."  \  The  position  of  Akra 
was  so  strong  that  he  did  not  expect  to  dislodge 
the  Syrians  from  it  ;  but  the  two  hills  on  which 
Jerusalem  was  built,  being  separated  by  a  valley, 

*  1  IMaccabees  iv.  29.  This  is  hard  to  understand  if  he  came 
from  Antioch.  Whether  we  read  '\hov\xaiav  (Fritzsche)  or  the  old 
reading  'louôat'oi/  (cf.  Josephus),  we  cannot  conceive  why,  if  there 
was  a  long  interval  between  the  battle  of  Emmaus  and  the  arrival  of 
Lysias  in  Judea,  Judas  Maccabeus  did  not  sooner  take  Jerusalem. 
One  cannot,  indeed,  but  have  some  doubts  concerning  this  battle 
with  Lysias. 

t  1  Maccabees  iv.  26-35  ;  2  Maccabees  xi.  1-15  ;  Josephus,  Antiqui- 
ties xii.  vii.  5. 

Î  1  Maccabees  iv.  36-50  ;  2  Maccabees  x.  1-8. 


JEWISH   WORSHIP  RESTORED.  317 

were  so  far  independent  of  each  other  that  the  gar- 
rison stationed  upon  one  of  the  heights  could  not 
greatly  interfere  with  the  religious  services  going 
on  upon  the  other.  The  city  walls  having  been 
destroyed  by  order  of  Antiochus,  Judas  could  with- 
out striking  a  blow  penetrate  into  the  Temple  court. 
The  renegades  fled  to  the  protection  of  the  Syrians 
in  Akra. 

The  spectacle  offered  in  the  Temple  court  must 
have  been  hideous  to  a  Jew.  Everything  told  of 
uncleanness  and  desolation;  the  buildings  were  di- 
lapidated, and  weeds  were  growing  everywhere.  Not 
an  hour  did  they  delay  to  put  such  horrors  out  of 
sight.  The  soldiers  of  Judas  kept  the  garrison  of 
Akra  in  check,  to  prevent  their  interfering  with 
what  was  going  on  in  the  other  part  of  the  city. 
The  statue  of  the  Olympian  Zeus  and  the  pedestal 
which  held  it  were  broken  to  pieces,  and  the  accursed 
stones  were  flung  into  a  loathsom.e  place.  As  to  the 
ancient  altar,  which  had  been  once  the  altar  of 
lahveh  but  had  been  defiled  by  abominable  sacrifices, 
they  laid  aside  its  stones  in  a  certain  spot  until  a 
prophet  should  appear,  who  might  decide  what  should 
be  done  with  them.*  They  chose  priests  unblemished, 
according  to  the  levitical  rule,  and  left  everything 
in  their  charge.  Things  were  put  back  to  what  they 
had  been  three  years  before.  The  holy  vases,  the 
candlestick,  the  altar  of  incense,  the  table  of  shew- 
bread,  and  the  hangings  were  all  made  new. 

*  1  Maccabees  iv.  43-46.     Cf.  Mishna,  Middoth,  1,  6;  Derenbourg, 
Palest.^  pp.  60,  61. 


31 8         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

On  the  25th  of  the  month  Kislev,  in  the  year  165 
B.  c,  three  years  exactly  to  a  day  since  tjie  great 
profanation,*  they  offered  a  solemn  morning  sacri- 
fice on  the  new  altar.  The  Temple  front  was  adorned 
with  crowns  of  gold  and  with  shields.  The  cere- 
mony was  accompanied  by  chants,!  to  the  music 
of  lyres,  harps,  and  cymbals.  The  Psalm  lakoum 
Elo]iim,\  was  brought  out,  retouched,  and  completed 
for  the  second  or  third  time.  The  piety  of  the  people 
was  at  its  height.  The  feast  lasted  eight  days,  and 
it  was  ordered  by  a  decree  of  the  community  that  it 
should  be  yearly  celebrated  in  perpetual  remembrance 
of  that  great  day.§  The  rite  almost  corresponded 
with  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles.  ||  The  Feast  of  Tab- 
ernacles was  in  commemoration  of  the  wanderines 
in  the  Wilderness  ;  the  new  Feast,  they  said,  would 
call  to  mind  a  time  when  the  true  Israel  dwelt  in 
mountains  and  in  caverns,  leading  the  life  of  wild 
beasts.  They  brought  garlands,  branches  of  trees, 
and  boughs  of  palms  ;  they  sang  hymns,  and  in  later 
times  they  added  lamps,  which  were  carried  in  pro- 
cession, and  illuminations.]! 

*  1  Maccabees  iv.  52.  Cf.  Megillath  Taanith,  §23.  Cf.  Deren- 
bourg,  p.  62. 

t  Psalm  XXX.  has  for  its  title  n^^n  riDjn  Tn;.  This  means  that 
they  sang  it  at  the  Feast  of  Hanouka.     Cf.  Soferim,  xviii.  2. 

X  Psalm  Ixviii. 

§  It  was  the  feast. of  Hanoul'a,  in  Greek  iyKalvia.  Cf.  the  two 
letters  placed  at  the  beginning  of  the  Second  Book  of  Maccabees. 
See  Vie  de  Jésus,  p.  370. 

II  2  Maccabees  i.  9  ;  x.  6,  &c.     Cf.  John  x.  22. 

^  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xii.  vii.  7.     Baha  Kama,  vi.  6. 


JEWISH   WORSHIP  RESTORED.  319 

The  day,  in  truth,  was  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able in  the  history  of  Israel.  A  band  of  lévites  and 
of  men  not  bred  as  soldiers  had  succeeded  in  wrest- 
ing their  Temple  from  a  power  which,  though  not  the 
foremost  in  the  world,  had  a  large  force  at  its  dis- 
posal. The  Syrian  dominium  was  not  driven  out 
of  Jerusalem  ;  but  Jewish  autonomy  had  been  that 
day  established.  Rome  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
five  years  later  had  better  success  ;  yet  she  too  was 
powerless  against  the  spirit.  Rome  was  something 
other  than  Antiochus  ;  and,  besides,  circumstances 
were  very  different.  Similar  movements  of  indepen- 
dence were  taking  place  throughout  Syria.  The 
bond  of  the  Seleucidse  was  growing  weaker.  Re- 
publics and  independent  dynasties  were  set  up  on 
every  side.  To  the  period  of  Antiocli,  which  dates 
from  the  complete  establishment  of  Seleucus  Nica- 
nor,  succeeds  a  period  of  numerous  separate  cities.* 
What  founds  dynasties  is  military  power  ;  and 
military  power  now  shows  itself  in  Judea  as  else- 
where. There  is  about  to  be  a  Jewish  dynasty, 
drawn  not  from  the  House  of  David  (which  w^as 
now  forgotten),  but  from  levitical  fanaticism.  Jeru- 
salem and  Judea  will  have  no  new  era  ;  but  the 
crisis  has  brought  forth  new  dogmas,  which  will 
soon  be  the  dog:mas  of  the  world.  A  new  Israel 
has  sprung  from  the  Maccabean  struggle.  That 
poor  little  district  is  more  than  ever  to  labour  for 
the  good  of   all  mankind.     Now,  more  than   ever, 

*  Mission  de  PJiénicie^  pp.  615,  616. 


320         HISTORY  OF   THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

she  can  say  like  Rachel  at  the  birth  of  Naphtali,* 
"  I  have  wrestled  the  wrestlings  of  God." 

It  will  be  of  far  greater  interest  to  study  this 
interior  wrestling  than  to  follow  the  political  ups 
and  downs  of  the  little  dynasty  about  to  be  founded. 
Eager  to  hope  for  something  to  console  its  sorrowful 
destiny,  our  poor  humanity  will  soon  cling  to  the 
hopes  that  came  so  late  to  Israel.  The  people  that 
was  latest  to  attain  faith  in  immortality  will  give 
that  faith  to  nations  that  might  seem  to  have  re- 
ceived it  from  their  ancestors.  This  is  far  better 
worth  our  knowing  than  the  wretched  little  intrigues 
that  had  Jerusalem  for  their  centre.  The  new 
dynasty  displayed  all  the  faults  common  to  other 
Oriental  dynasties,  with  all  the  faults  of  degenerate 
Jews.  Forgetful  of  its  origin,  fanatic  without  piety, 
it  soon  became  a  mere  worldly  dynasty.  It  thwarted 
the  true  destiny  of  the  people  ;  it  prepared  the  way 
for  Herod  ;  and  strove  against  Jesus  even  before 
his  birth.  It  is  not  from  this  that  the  true  glory  of 
Israel  will  proceed. 

*  Naphtoule  Elohim  mpTitalti  (Gen.  xxx.  8). 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

PRINCELY   RULE    OF    JUDAS    MACCABEUS. 

For  a  year  and  a  half  after  the  recapture  of  the 
Temple,  Judas  Maccabeus  was  almost  the  sovereign  of 
Judea.*  Akra  alone,  from  the  height  of  its  impreg- 
nable ramparts,  maintained  the  power  of  the  kings 
of  Syria.  The  Hellenist  Jews,  or  renegades,  led 
a  wretched  life  there,  —  almost  that  of  prisoners. 
Lysias,  absorbed  by  other  cares,  could  not  return  to 
the  attack.  Judas  Maccabeus  fortified  the  Temple 
court.  Bethsura,  a  very  important  point,  he  caused 
also  to  be  fortified,  in  case  any  unexpected  reverse- 
should  force  the  hasidim  to  evacuate  Jerusalem. 

One  of  the  great  faults  of  the  Jews  began  now  to- 
show  itself.  Full  of  a  sense  of  their  own  superiority, 
harsh  in  temper,  quarrelsome,  brought  by  their  Law 
to  a  separateness  that  seemed  disdain,  the  Jews  were 
held  bad  neighbours,  and  indeed  were  so.  They 
were  detested  by  the  populations  that  lived  about 
them.  This  has  been  the  case  in  all  ages,  too  con- 
stantly not  to  have  its  cause.  Every  neighbour  of 
the  Jews  ill  treats  the  Jew  :  this  is  a  rule  with  very 

*  1  Maccabees  iv.  60,  &c.     Joseph  us,  Antiquities,  xii,  vii.,  &c. 

VOL    IV.  — 21 


322         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

few  exceptions.  The  nations  on  the  frontiers  of 
Palestine  had  seen  with  an  evil  eye  the  Jewish  re- 
volt, and  had  taken  part  with  the  Seleucidge.  The 
re-establishment  of  worship  in  Jerusalem  brought  on 
a  relapse  of  active  hostility.  People  were  murdered 
or  seized  as  slaves.  Judas  Maccabeus  held  it  his 
duty  to  avenge  his  co-religionists,  and  he  did  it 
mercilessly.  Idumea  especially  was  cruelly  chastised. 
Then  came  the  turn  of  the  Ammonites,  who  resisted 
with  an  army  well  commanded  by  a  certain  Timo- 
theus.  But  Judas  prevailed.  The  town  of  Jazar 
was  taken  and  sacked  ;  "^  and  Judas  after  this  cam- 
paign, which  must  have  roused  bitter  hatred,  re- 
turned into  Judea. 

We  can  see  already,  in  the  early  days  of  this  half- 
autonomy,  how  impossible  was  a  Jewish  State  under 
a  Jewish  sovereign.  A  sovereign  should  be  free  to 
act.  Now,  a  Jewish  sovereign  is  too  hard-pushed  by 
religious  fanaticism  ;  he  hears  too  many  complaints. 
Whenever  the  Jew  finds  himself  supported,  he  begins 
to  complain  and  to  denounce.  Jerusalem  was  hardly 
in  the  hands  of  a  Jewish  chief  before  complaints 
came  in  from  every  side.  They  were  probably  well- 
founded  in  part,  but  no  doubt  exaggerated.  Eastern 
Christians  in  our  own  day  are  always  complaining 
of  massacre,  when  it  is  only  the  following  up  of 
local  quarrels,  in  which  they  are  often  the  first  at 
fault. 

*  See  the  instances  of  Bosora,  Maspha,  Carnaim,  Ephron.    1  Macca- 
bees, V.  28,  38,  44,  57. 


PRINCELY  RULE   OF  JUDAS  MACCABEUS.      323 

Recriminations  came  especially  from  Gilead  *  and 
from  Galilee,  where  the  Jews  were  numerous,  and 
asserted  that  the  heathen  held  the  knife  always 
at  their  throats.  A  great  Assembly!  took  place. 
Simon,  brother  of  Judas,  was  sent  into  Galilee  with 
three  thousand  men.  Judas  and  Jonathan,  with 
eight  thousand,  were  to  act  beyond  the  Jordan. 
Joseph,  son  of  Zechariah,  and  Azarias  were  to  pro- 
tect Judea  with  the  rest  of  the  troops.  The  cam- 
paigns in  Gilead  and  in  Galilee  were  fortunate, — 
if  we  may  say  so  of  a  succession  of  slaughters  and 
conflagrations.  I  • 

Timotheus,  whom  we  again  find  measuring  him- 
self against  Judas,  was  completely  defeated.  Simon 
pushed  his  arms  as  far  as  Acre.  The  object  of  these 
expeditions  was  not  merely  to  punish  the  pagans. 
The  apparent  aim  was  to  draw  in  the  scattered  Jews 
upon  Jerusalem,  so  as  to  strengthen  Judea,  and  not 
leave  its  too  feeble  population  exposed  to  the  vindic- 
tive raids  of  the  enemy.  § 

Joseph  and  x^zarias,  who  had  been  left  in  charge 
at  Jerusalem,  exposed  their  position  to  extreme  risk. 
They  imprudently  made  an  attack  upon  a  place 
called   Jabne,  where   Gorgias   chanced   to    be,    who 

*  This  name  was  given  to  all  the  country  beyond  Jordan. 

\    YiKKKy](T[a  fieyaXr]. 

X  Echo  in  Baruch  iv.  32. 

§  This  appears  to  have  happened  in  Galilee,  from  1  Maccabees  v. 
23  (the  explanation  of  Josephiis  xii.  viii.  2,  is  not  admissible).  It 
is  clear  as  to  Gilead,  1  Maccabees  v.  45,  &c.  Compare  1  Maccabees 
vi.  53. 


324         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

slaughtered  many  of  their  host^  and  forced  the  rest 
to   return    to    Jerusalem. 

Judas  had  now  become  a  true  soldier,  a  secular 
chief.  He  enjoyed  his  fame  among  the  Gentiles, 
and  liked  to  receive  felicitations  at  Jerusalem.*  He 
was  not  willing  that  priests  should  go  out  to  battle  : 
it  was  remarked  that  when  such  persons  meddled 
with  what  did  not  concern  them  they  got  killed 
immediately.!  A  true  military  spirit  was  forming. 
A  raid  that  Judas  made  towards  the  south  was  com- 
pletely successful.  Hebron  and  Maresa,  which  had 
for  a  long  time  belonged  to  the  Idumeans,  were  con- 
quered and  dismantled.  Azotus  and  towns  in  its 
neighbourhood  were  pillaged,  their  altars  destroyed, 
and  their  carved  images  hammered  to  pieces.:):  The 
band  returned  to  Jerusalem  with  immense  booty; 
but  thus  far  they  never  dreamed  of  lasting  conquests, 
nor  had  they  indeed  soldiers  enough  to  leave  garri- 
sons in  conquered  towns. 

About  this  time  they  learned  the  death  of  Antio- 
chus,  who  had  long  been  engaged  in  his  disastrous 
wars  against  the  Parthians.§     Like  his  father,  he 

*  1  Maccabees  v.  63,  64. 

t  1  Maccabees  v.  67.  A  passasse  composed  of  two  readings,  one 
placed  over  the  other  :  eneaev  Upevs  ev  rœ  avrov  è^eXôelu  etc  noXefiov 
(i/3ouXevTU)Ç  ;  eTrcaov  Upels  eV  7ru\ép.(ù  ^ovXôfieuoi  avroîi  àvbpayaô^vai,  — 
"certain  priests  desirous  to  show  their  valour  were  slain  in  battle,  for 
that  they  went  out  to  fight  unadvisedly.'' 

t  1  Maccabees  v.  65,  &c.  ;  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xii.  viii.  6. 
§  1  Maccabees  vi.  1,  &c.  ;  2  Maccabees  i.  10,  &c.  ;  Josephus,  Antiqui- 
ties, xii.  ix.  7;  Polybius,  xxxi.   11;  Porphyry  {Frnpm.  hist.  Grœc,  iv. 
711);  Appianus,  Syr.  c.  66.     The   narrative   in   2  Maccabees  ix.  is 
wholly  fabulous. 


PRINCELY  RULE   OF  JUDAS  MACCABEUS.       325 

tried  to  repair  the  void  in  liis  treasury  by  seizing  the 
wealth  laid  up  in  the  great  temples  of  the  East.  In 
so  doing,  his  father  had  met  his  death  ;  and  his  own 
fate  was  not  much  better.  Obliged  to  retire  from 
a  temple  of  Artemis,  or  Anaitis,  in  the  Elymaid,  he 
endeavoured  to  get  back  to  Babylon,  when  death 
overtook  him  at  Tabae  in  Persia  (163  B.  c).  His 
son,  nine  years  old,  succeeded  him,  not  under  the 
guardianship  of  Philip,  as  his  dying  father  had 
intended,  but  under  that  of  Lysias. 

Judas,  as  was  natural,  made  it  his  chief  aim  to 
capture  Akra.     He  furiously  attacked  the  citadel,  in 
which  not  only  the  Syrians,  but  apostate  or  moderate 
Jews  who   dreaded  the  fanaticism   of  the  hasidim^ 
had  taken  refuge.     The  besieged,  knowing  the  fate 
that  awaited  them,  sent  pressing  appeals  for  help  to 
Antioch.     Many  Jews  of  the  Hellenist  party,  whom 
the  victories  of   Judas  Maccabeus   had   reduced   to 
silence   but   not  to  exile,   joined  them.     Lysias,  ac- 
companied  by  the  young   king,  his  ward,   made   a 
vigorous   effort.     At    Beth-zechariah,  half   way  be- 
tween Bethsura  and  Bethlehem,  was  fought  a  terrible 
battle,  where  it  was  clearly  seen  how  incompetent 
were  the  bands  of  Judas  Maccabeus  to  stand  against 
the  mass  of  Syrian  forces.     The  victory  of  Lysias 
was  complete  (163  b.  c),  despite  the  heroism  of  the 
Jews.     Extraordinary  feats  of  daring  are  related  of 
them,  —  among  the  rest,  of  Eleazer,  brother  of  Judas 
Maccabeus,  who,  seeing  an  elephant  larger  than  the 
rest  and  royally  caparisoned,  fancied  he  was  bearing 


326         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

the  young  king.  He  then  resolved  upon  a  glorious 
death.  Creeping  under  the  belly  of  the  enormous 
beast,  he  plunged  in  his  sword  as  far  as  it  would  go. 
The  great  creature  fell,  and  crushed  him. 

All  that -had  been  gained  by  the  heroic  efforts  of 
the  sons  of  Mattathiah  and  their  party  was  brought 
to  nothing.  Judas  fled  with  the  remains  of  the 
army  in  the  direction  of  Gophna,*  and  for  several 
years  seems  to  have  remained  in  hiding.!  There 
was  evidently  a  strong  reaction  against  him  \  and 
although  he  entered  into  many  intrigues,  and  gained 
a  victory  over  the  Syrians,  it  is  probable  that 
he  never  again  saw  Jerusalem  after  the  battle  of 
Beth-zechariah. 

The  people,  however,  still  hoped  and  prayed.  A 
people  never  despairs,  because  it  does  not  know  what 
it  is  to  doubt.  For  the  people  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  utter  failure,  because  for  them  there  is  no  expe- 
rience. Ten  times  beaten  back,  they  still  say,  "  It 
was  only  a  blunder  ;  w^e  must  begin  again." 

*  This  place  is  now  Jifneh,  near  Beitin,  north  of  Jerusalem. 

t  1  Maccabees,  chap,  vii.,  seems  to  infer  so.  Josephus  says  so 
positively,  B.  J.  i.  i.  5.  He  contradicts  himself,  Antiquities,  xii. 
ix.  5,  7. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  HELLENIST  REACTION. — LIBERTY  OF  CONSCIENCE. 

Profiting  by  their  victory  at  Beth-zechariah,  the 
Syrians  stormed  the  important  post  of  Bethsura,  and 
laid  siege  to  the  Temple,  and  to  such  parts  of  the 
city  near  it  as  the  Israelites  a  few  years  before  had 
surrounded  with  a  wall.  No  provision  had  been 
made  to  stand  a  siege  ;  the  crowd  of  Jews  brought 
from  Gilead  and  Galilee  fast  consumed  the  food.  To 
make  the  matter  worse,  the  year  163  B.  c.  was,  it  is 
said,  à  Sabbatical  year,*  so  that  famine  was  soon  felt 
everywhere. 

If  Antiochus  Epiphanes  had  been  still  on  the 
throne,  the  Temple  would  no  doubt  have  been  taken 
and  destroyed  in  his  rage.  But  it  was  beginning  to 
be  perceived  that  his  system  of  policy  was  deplorable. 
People  charged  him  with  having  resolved  to  force  the 
Jews  to  change  their  worship  ;  and  those  who  had 
provoked  this  interminable  war  were  severely  blamed. 
Lysias  was  one  of  those  who  professed  this  opinion, 
and  promptly  carried  it  out.  He  even  advised  the 
king  to  put  to  death  Menelaus,  the  high-priest,  who 

*  See  Schiirer,  i.  166,  note  2. 


328         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL. 

had  given  his  father  such  evil  counsels.*'  Ptolemy, 
the  son  of  Dorymenus  (surnamed  Macron),  who  had 
been  always  equitable  in  his  conduct  towards  the 
Jews,  and  who  thought  they  had  been  greatly 
wronged,  gave  his  advice  that  this  sad  quarrel  should 
be  peaceably  settled.!  The  Syrian  generals  saw  no 
reason  for  pushing  matters  to  extremity  for  the  sake 
of  a  small  party,  which  was  now  only  a  drag  upon 
them.  With  the  followers  of  Judas  Maccabeus  there 
was  no  way  to  come  to  an  understanding  ;  but  this 
party  was  for  the  moment  scattered,  and  its  chief 
had  lost  his  military  rejDute  at  the  battle  of  Beth- 
zechariah.  There  remained  a  party  of  sincere  Jews 
who  had  never  apostatized,  or  at  most  had  only 
shown  some  weakness  ;  these  did  not  share  the  ex- 
treme views  of  Judas  Maccabeus,  who  sought  the 
complete  independence  of  Judea  and  the  total  expul- 
sion of  the  Syrians.  The  moderate  Jews  limited 
their  demands  to  abandonment  of  the  disastrous 
policy  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  and  permission  for 
the  Jews  to  live  under  their  own  religious  laws.  As 
enlightened  Syrians  held  just  the  same  opinion,  a 
good  understanding  became  possible  ;  and  while  the 
siege  of  the  liar  am  still  continued,  conferences  were 
held  between  moderate  men  on  both  sides.  All  this, 
of  course,  took  place  without  any  reference  to  Judas 
Maccabeus. 

Another  reason  also  inclined  the  Syrians  to  make 

*  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xii.  ix.  7. 
,  -j-  2  Maccabees,  x,  12,  &c. 


THE  HELLENIST  REACTION.  329 

easy  terms  of  capitulation.  Philip,  whom  Antiochus 
Epiphanes  on  his  deathbed  had  named  guardian  of 
his  son,  was  asserting  his  rights  and  marching  upon 
Antioch.  Lysias  was  extremely  desirous  to  get  back 
to  the  north.  He  urged  the  necessity  of  not  exas- 
perating a  nation  whom  it  would  be  wise  to  convert 
into  an  ally.  The  Hellenist  Jews,  the  moderate 
Jews,  and  the  renegades  who  ventured  out  from 
Akra,  all  surrounded  him,  and  expressed  their  sat- 
isfaction. Peace  was  concluded  on  the  basis  of 
religious  liberty.  The  Temple  worship  should  be 
exactly  conformed  to  the  ancient  rites  ;  the  Jews 
should  be  its  guardians.  They  should  also  be  en- 
tirely free  to  observe  their  Law  according  to  their 
ancient  customs.  A  truly  just  man,  distinguishing 
religion  from  politics,  could  not  desire  more.  The 
end  for  which  a  five  years'  war  had  been  carried  on 
was  gained  ;  every  one  was  satisfied  except  the  par- 
tisans of  Judas,  who  wanted  to  have  all  things  radi- 
cally settled,  and  who  may  have  had  an  eye  to  some 
dynastic  settlement  or  personal  advantage.* 

The  king  ordered  the  fortifications  of  the  Temple 
court  to  be  destroyed.  Only  one  citadel  remained 
in  Jerusalem,  and  that  was  Akra.  This  caused 
discontent  ;  it  was  reported  that  the  king,  or  those 
who  governed  for  him,  had  sworn  before  he  entered 

*  Of  course,  to  arrive  at  the  truth  in  these  matters  we  have  to 
rectify  the  extreme  views  taken  by  the  Jewish  historians.  It  is  very 
much  as  if  we  had  no  knowledge  of  the  wars  in  La  Vendée  except 
what  we  find  in  Vendean  narratives. 


330         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 

the   Temple   precincts  that  he  would  not  touch  its 

walls. 

The  question  who  should  be  high-priest  was  espe- 
cially difficult  to  settle.  The  hateful  Menelaus,  ready 
like  GobeP  for  any  abjuration,  was  still  living,  and 
held  the  official  title.  He  was  equally  detested  by 
the  Jews  and  by  the  Syrians  ;  and  Lysias  said  openly 
that  he  would  have  to  get  rid  of  him.  During  the 
dictatorship  of  Judas  Maccabeus,  who  had  actually 
performed  the  service  of  high-priest  in  the  Temple  ? 
It  is  not  easy  to  know.  The  son  of  the  devout  Onias 
HI.  never  was  high -priest  at  Jerusalem.!  Judas 
Maccabeus,  in  spite  of  what  Josephus  says,  was  never 
himself  high-priest.  The  official  title  of  Menelaus 
was  probably  respected,  though  he  was  never  suffered 
to  exercise  its  functions.  Antiochus  V.  had  him 
taken  to  Aleppo,  where  he  was  put  to  death  with 
great  cruelty.  Antiochus  nominated  in  his  place  a 
certain  Iakim,|  who,  according  to  the  fashion  of 
those  times,  called  himself  Alcimus  §  (162  b.  c).  He 
was  a  member  of  the  sacerdotal  family,  ||  a  Philhel- 
lenic Jew,  a  man,  it  would  seem,  of  moderate  views. 
Pie  did  all  he  could  to  promote  peace  at  a  time 
when  party  animosity  was  at  its  height. 

*  A  constitutional  bishop,  who  was  guillotined  as  an  atheist  in  1794. 

f  See  below,  p.  350. 

X  Eliakim  probably,  or  Jehoiakim. 

§  Josephus,  Jniiquities,  xii.  ix.  7.  2  Maccabees,  xiv.  3,  &c.  Ac- 
cording to  another  account,  Alkimus  was  not  nominated  till  the  time 
of  Demetrius  I.  (1  INIaccabees,  vii.  9.) 

II  1  Maccabees  vii.  14,  in  spite  of  what  Josephus  says. 


THE  HELLENIST  REACTION.  331 

What  a  fanatic  most  detests  is  liberty.     He  would 

far  rather  be  persecuted  than  tolerated;   what  he 

wants  is  the  right  to  persecute  others.     Judas  Mac 

cabeus  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  new  state 

of    things.     He  was   at   a   distance  from   the  city, 

getting  all  the  fanatics  together,  and  re-forming  his 

army.     The  Syrian  government  had  evidently  little 

hold  upon  the  outlying  districts.     All  it  could  do 

was  to  send  expeditions,  and  strike  sudden  blows; 

then    it   disappeared,    and    the    inhabitants   of    the 

country  were  left  to  their  old  ways.     The  political 

machinery  was    getting   more   and   more  deranged. 

Hardly  a  year  after  the   religious  peace  had   been 

concluded  at  Jerusalem,  the   landing  at  Tripoli  of 

Demetrius,  son  of  Seleucus  Philopator,  with  a  few 

hundred  men,  was  sufficient  to  excite  a  revolution. 

Lysias   and   his  ward  were    put  to  death  by  their 

soldiers. 

The  government  of  Alcimus  under  these  circum- 
stances was  very  weak.     Both  parties,  Hellenist  and 
moderate,  or  patriotic  and  fanatic,  found  themselves 
much  as  they  had  been  before  the  war,  face  to  face, 
each  incessantly  complaining  of  the  other.      There 
were   no   horrors  that   were   not   told    of  Alcimus. 
This  infamous  high-priest,  according  to  the  pietists, 
had   about   him   only   apostates   and    the    ungodly. 
Alcimus,  on  his  part,  accused  Judas  of  an  attempt  to 
murder  him,  and  of  hunting  down  the  friends  of 
the  king  like  wild  beasts.     Early  in  the  reign   of 
Demetrius  these   complaints   reached  Antioch,   and 


332         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

brought  about  the  sending  of  a  grand  commissioner, 
—  Bacchides,  a  man  of  very  high  rank,  —  whom  the 
kino-  charged  to  inquire  into  the  facts,  and  support 
the  authority  of  Alcinms  with  a  body  of  soldiers. 
The  only  decided  opposition  Bacchides  met  was  from 
Judas  and  his  partisans.  The  liasidwi  and  the 
scribes  *  were  ready  to  enter  into  an  amicable  ar- 
rangement, and  made  no  objection  as  to  the  legality 
of  the  high-priesthood  of  Alcimus.  Who  was  in 
fault  ?  The  Jewish  historians  naturally  charged  it  to 
Bacchides.  He,  they  said,  made  arbitrary  arrests  of 
those  who  came  to  him  with  the  best  intentions,  and 
put  to  death  sixty  men  at  once  :  even  the  well  was 
shown  which  he  had  filled  with  their  dead  bodies. 
The  situation  was  worse  than  ever.  Bacchides  went 
back  into  Syria,  leaving  a  few  soldiers  wdth  Alcimus, 
who  thenceforth  passed  his  time  in  jDerpetual  quarrels. 
He  was  not  strong  enough  to  maintain  order,  and 
what  he  did  to  preserve  it  increased  his  unpopularity. 
His  adversaries,  however,  admit  that  the  means  he 
employed  were  not  those  of  an  illiberal  man.  He 
tried  to  gain  the  good-will  of  the  people  ;  he  spoke 
to  all  men  with  gentleness  and  affability.  The 
people  about  him  were  moderates,  whom  the  pietists 
called  deserters  and  ungodly.  It  was  said  that  his 
adherents  made  no  scruple  to  kill  the  partisans  of 
Judas  when  they  could.  What  is  certain  (since 
Josephus    says    it,    to   his   honour)   is    that    Judas 

*  Fpa/i/iareîs. 


THE  HELLENIST  REACTION,  333 

went  through  the  country  slaying  the  partisans  of 
Alcimus.* 

It  is  also  certain  that  Judas  grew  stronger  day  by 
day.  He  did  not  stir  from  the  district  of  Gophna, 
where  he  was  reorganizing  his  army.  The  only 
choice  was  between  him  and  the  Hellenists,  who 
could  not  rally  the  bulk  of  the  nation.  It  was 
found  that  he,  after  all,  was  right  ;  that  nothing 
good  could  ever  be  obtained  from  the  Syrians  ;  that 
be  alone  could  bring  back  order  in  the  land.  If  a 
battle  had  taken  place,  Alcimus  and  his  soldiers 
would  have  been  inevitably  defeated.  Alcimus  went 
to  Antioch  and  explained  the  state  of  affairs. 
Nicanor  came  with  a  fresh  army.  He  proved  both 
treacherous  and  cruel.  Judas  contrived  to  escape 
a  snare  that  the  Syrian  general  had  laid  for  him, 
defeated  him  at  Capharsalama,f  and  forced  him  to 
fall  back  on  Akra. 

Nicanor  was  not  ill-received  in  Jerusalem.  The 
priests  of  Alcimus  and  the  chief  men,  leaving  the 
sacred  precincts,  came  and  saluted  him  respectfully, 
showing  him  the  sacrifice  they  were  offering  for 
the  king,  whose  subjects  they  acknowledged  them- 
selves to  be.  Nicanor  made  no  favourable  response 
to  these  advances.  He  was  roudi  and  threateninsr, 
and  declared  that  if  Judas  did  not  surrender  he 
would  set  fire  to  the  Temple.  Alcimus  and  his 
priests  were  struck  with  terror. 

*  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xii.  x.  3. 
t  Not  far  from  Ramleh . 


334         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Nicanor  pitched  his  camp  at  Beth-horon,  where  he 
was  joined  by  another  body  of  Syrians.  Judas  was 
encamped  at  Adasa,  not  far  off,  with  three  thousand 
men.  It  was  the  thirteenth  day  of  the  month  Adar 
(nearl}^  corresponding  with  March)  in  the  year  161,  b.  c. 
Nicanor,  whose  army  was  probably  not  strong, *"  was 
defeated  and  killed.  The  neighbouring  country,  which 
was  all  in  favour  of  Judas,  at  once  rose  ;  peasants 
intercepted  the  fugitives  and  slew  them.  Nicanor's 
head  and  his  right  hand  —  that  hand  with  which  he 
had  threatened  the  Temple  —  were  cut  off,  and  hung 
up  by  the  high-road  to  Jerusalem.  This  victory  was 
celebrated  by  a  feast,  held  yearly  thenceforth  in 
Israel  under  the  name  of  the  Day  of  Nicanor. t 

This  brilliant  victory  ought,  it  would  seem,  to 
have  restored  Jerusalem  to  Judas.  |  This  was  not 
the  case.  Some  weeks  later  a  fresh  Syrian  army, 
larger  than  that  of  Nicanor,  appeared  before  Jeru- 
salem.    It  was  commanded   by  Baccliides,  and  ac- 

*  The  numbers  of  the  Syrian  armies,  as  given  in  the  books  of  the 
Maccabees,  are  always  exaggerated.  After  the  death  of  Antiochus 
Epiphanes,  the  Senate  had  made  great  reductions  in  the  Syrian  forces. 
Polybius,  xxxi.  12;  Appianus,  Syr..^  c.  46. 

f  Megillafh  Taanith,  §  30  (Derenbourg,  p.  63). 

X  Tt  is  now  that  what  relates  to  the  treaty  of  alliance  between 
Judas  and  the  Romans  must  have  taken  place.  (1  Maccabees  viii.  ; 
Josephus,  Antiquities^  xii.  x.  6.)  We  think  this  story,  and  the  treaty 
that  accompanies  it,  false  and  apocryphal.  What  is  true  is  that  the 
dynasty  that  succeeded  Judas  Maccabeus  always  looked  for  support  to 
the  Romans  ;  and  this  has  led  the  official  historian  (author  of  the  First 
Book  of  Maccabees)  to  suppose  the  aforesaid  treaty  renewed  subse- 
quently (1  Maccabees  xii.  1-16;  xiv.  16,  &c.,  40;  xv.  15,  &c.).  See 
p.  354. 


THE  HELLENIST  REACTION,  335 

companied  by  Alcimus.  Judas  was  at  Eleasa,"^  with 
three  thousand  men.  Discouragement  fell  upon  the 
little  troop.  It  melted  away;  only  eight  hundred 
men  remained  with  Judas.  He  was  advised  to 
retire,  and  come  back  with  larger  forces.  But  he 
answered  :  "  God  forbid  that  I  should  do  this  thing, 
and  flee  away  !  Retreat  before  these  men  ?  Never  ! 
If  our  time  be  come,  let  us  die  manfully  for  our 
brethren,  and  let  us  not  stain  our  honour  !  "  t  Judas, 
like  a  true  hero,  then  tried  to  reconnoitre  the  wing 
commanded  by  Bacchides,  and  flung  himself  upon  it 
with  the  bravest  of  his  followers.  He  gained  a 
partial  victory  over  the  right  wing,  but  was  then 
crushed  by  the  left  (April,  161  b.  c). 

It  is  often  said  that  he  fell  in  the  midst  of  his 
triumph.  This  is  not  true.  He  was  beaten  at 
Eleasa,  and  his  party  was  suppressed  for  several 
years  But  his  cause  was  to  revive.  His  heroism 
was  that  of  all  founders  of  dynasties,  which  avails  for 
their  descendants.  The  dominion  of  the  Seleucidse 
in  Palestine  had  in  fact  come  to  an  end.  Jewish 
fanaticism  is  ill-favoured  in  our  eyes  ;  but  it  repre- 
sented the  cause  of  the  human  race.  Judas  was 
right  in  opposing  Hellenists,  moderates,  and  the 
men  of  peace-at-any-price.  His  great,  courageous 
soul   was    that    of    a    man   of    the    people,    and    it 

*  Site  uncertain. 

t  1  Maccabees  ix.  10.  These  words  are  quoted,  not  probably  as 
the  actual  words  of  Judas,  but  as  a  specimen  of  how  a  Jew  of  the  old 
school  still  understood,  about  one  hundred  years  before  Christ,  the 
death  of  a  saint. 


336         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

obeyed  profound  instincts.  He  died  for  the  future. 
A  brave  man  has  his  own  revelation  from  Heaven. 
He  reads  it  in  the  strong  beating  of  his  own  heart. 

The  body  of  Judas  was  lifted  from  the  field  of 
battle,  and  buried  at  Modin  beside  his  father's. 
Later,  there  was  raised  above  those  graves  a  splendid 
monument.  "Now  after  the  death  of  Judas  the 
wicked  sprang  up  like  grass  upon  the  mountains  of 
Israel,  and  the  workers  of  iniquity  flourished  on 
every  side,"  says  the  passionate  author  of  the  first 
Book  of  the  Maccabees,  borrowing  his  expressions 
from  a  Psalm.*  The  country  itself  (he  thinks)  took 
sides  with  the  enemy  ;  there  was  a  great  famine  in 
the  land  ;  Bacchides  made  choice  of  ungodly  men  to 
be  governors  over  the  country.  The  anguish  was 
greater  than  anything  that  had  been  seen  since  the 
days  of  the  last  prophets.  This  bitterness  on  the 
part  of  the  Jewish  historian  is  the  best  proof  of 
the  strong  reaction  that  took  place  against  the 
fanatics  after  the  death  of  Judas  Maccabeus.  The 
Hellenists  and  the  moderates,  those  called  "  the  law- 
less" (ai/o/xot),t  made  themselves  masters  all  along 
the  line.  Bacchides  and  Alcimus  governed  with 
their  help,  and  were  very  severe  on  all  survivors  of 
the  party  of  Judas.  They  employed  against  them 
all  possible  means  of  persecution  and  mockery.  The 
name  of  Bacchides  was  almost  as  much  execrated  as 


*  1  Maccabees  ix.  23.     Cf.  Psalm  xcii.  7. 

t  This  is  the  name  the  Judaising  Christians  gave  in  after  days  to 
the  disciples  of  Saint  Paul. 


/ 


THE  HELLENIST  REACTION.  337 

that  of  Antioclius.  The  fanatics  forgot  that  if  they 
had  been  in  power  they  might  have  done  even 
worse.  It  is  always  wrong  to  persecute  fanatics; 
but,  in  general,  things  are  going  right  when  they  are 
in  a  state  of  discontent.  To  our  thinking  it  is  a  sign, 
when  fanatics  are  furious,  that  the  state  machinery 
is  working  well  ;  for  the  State  and  liberty  can  never 
succumb  while  fanatics  have  their  rights  respected. 

Bacchides  wished  especially  to  stop  the  recurrence 
of  such  raids  in  the  open  country  as  Judas  had 
shown  himself  a  master  in.  He  fortified  many 
cities,  —  Jericho,  Emmaus,  Beth-horon,  Bethel,  Beth- 
sura,  and  Gezer,  —  which  were  amply  provisioned 
and  garrisoned.  The  citadel  of  Akra  was  enlarged. 
Here  were  kept  as  hostages  the  children  of  leading 
Jews,  of  whose  fidelity  some  security  was  needed. 
For  the  first  time  since  the  revolt,  the  country  was 
reoccupied  in  force  by  the  government  of  Syria. 

Alcimus  had  a  very  good  idea.  It  was  to  do 
materially  what  Jesus  was  in  after  years  to  do 
spiritually,  —  namely,  to  break  down  the  wall  of 
separation  in  the  Temple  which  divided  Jews  from 
Gentiles.  His  act  was  considered  dreadful,  subver- 
sive alike  of  the  Prophets  and  the  Law.  This 
traitor  pontiff,  because  he  was  tolerant,  was  struck 
with  palsy  just  as  the  work  was  going  on  (May, 
160.)  *"  It  was  the  punishment  divinely  inflicted 
upon  his  deeds  :   enemies  of  the  clerical  order  have 

*  1  Maccabees  ix.  54,  &c.     There  is  an  error  in  Josephus,  Antiqui- 
ties, xii.  X.  6.     Compare  xx.  x.  1. 
VOL.  iv^.  —  22 


338         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL. 

no  right  to  die  without  some  special  heavenly 
intervention. 

Alcimus,  at  any  rate,  had  no  successor  ;  *  for 
seven  years,  at  least,  the  high-priesthood  was  vacant. 
Tolerant  parties  are  apt  to  be  timid  in  matters  of 
religion.  The  Hellenist  Jews,  now  masters  of  the 
situation,  were  not  reluctant  to  miss  their  pontiffs, 
and  probably  had  within  reach  no  one  duly  qualified 
for  the  post.  This  was  a  mistake  on  their  part. 
By  this  side-door  the  Asmonean  family  could  make 
its  way  to  a  position  which,  according  to  Jewish 
ideas,  was  almost  equivalent  to  sovereignty. 

The  best  proof  that  the  Maccabean  revolt  had  deep 
roots  and  a  response  in  the  hearts  of  a  large  part  of 
the  nation,  was  that  the  band  of  Judas,  far  from 
falling  to  pieces  after  the  disaster  of  Eleasa,  recov- 
ered strength,  activity,  and  decision.  With  one  voice 
the  partisans  of  Judas  chose  for  their  commander  his 
brother  Jonathan.  He  had  the  boldness  and  tenacity 
of  Judas,  but  a  fanaticism  much  more  moderate. 
His  plan  of  conduct  was  natura^lly  very  different. 
Bacchides  was  now  really  master  of  Judea.  An 
open  war  against  the  Syrians  was  impossible.  Jona- 
than, his  brother  Simon,  and  their  whole  band  re- 
solved to  take  refuge  in  the  Wilderness,  where  the 
national  movement  had  grown  up  eight  years  before. 
They  fell  back  towards  Tekoa,  and  encamped  near 
a  well  called  the  Well  of  Asfar.  There  Jonathan 
and  his  comrades  led  for  seven  years  the  life  of  ban- 

*  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xx.  x.  1. 


THE  HELLENIST  REACTION.  339 

dits,  very  like  that  led  formerly  by  David  on  those 
wild  moors.  Religion  appears  with  them  to  have 
held  a  secondary  place.  These  saints,  these  saviours 
of  the  Law,  became  real  Bedouin  plunderers.  They 
were  on  good  terms  with  the  Nabathgeans  south  of 
the  Dead  Sea,  and  put  into  their  charge  their  wives, 
children,  and  goods.  During  these  seven  years  they 
lived  by  pillage.  A  complete  epic  of  their  adven- 
tures was  told  or  sung,  similar  to  those  in  the  old 
Hebrew  books  (like  ancient  Arab  tales)  of  the  days 
of  the  Judges  and  the  youth  of  David.  Especially 
famous  were  their  fights  with  the  Beni-Jambri  of 
Medaba.^  John,  surnamed  Gaddis,  one  of  the  five 
sons  of  Mattathiah,  had  been  carried  off  and  killed 
by  men  of  that  clan  while  taking  the  s'tnala  to  the 
Nabathseans.  His  brothers  avenged  him.  The  Beni- 
Jambri  were  just  then  celebrating  an  important  mar- 
riage. The  bride  was  to  be  brought  from  Nadabath. 
Jonathan  and  his  troop,  hiding  in  the  hills,  watch 
the  marriage  procession  as  it  winds  in  great  pomp 
through  the  desert,  with  drums  and  instruments  of 
music,  then  fall  on  the  joyous  company,  and  kill  all 
who  do  not  escape  to  the  hills.  ^^  Thus,"  says  the 
chronicler,  "  was  the  marriage  turned  into  mourning, 
and  the  noise  of  their  melody  into  lamentation."  t 
After  this  exploit  they  go  and  hide  in  the  jungles 
of  the  Jordan.  Bacchides,  being  informed  of  the 
whole  affair,  crosses  the  river  with  a  strong  force. 

*  Clermont-Ganneau,  Journ.  As.^  May  and  June,  1891,  p.  540,  &c. 
t  1  Maccabees  ix.  39-41. 


340         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

It  is  the  Sabbath  ;  but  Jonathan  has  no  scruples. 
"Come  on,"  he  cries,  "and  let  us  fight  for  our  lives; 
for  the  battle  is  before  us  and  behind  us,  neither  is 
there  place  for  us  to  turn  aside."  *  Jonathan  per- 
ceives Bacchides,  and  is  about  to  strike  him  ;  but 
Bacchides  steps  back  and  avoids  the  blow.  The  Jew- 
ish band  plunge  into  the  Jordan  and  swim  to  the 
other  side,  whither  their  foes  dare  not  follow  tliem. 

Thus,  we  see,  all  is  not  sad  earnest  in  these 
struggles,  where  a  gleam  of  youth  shows  under  the 
icy  surface  of  theology.  The  Arab  race  has  a  gift 
for  mingling  these  incidents  of  drollery  with  more 
serious  matters.  The  fanatical  gravity  of  the  "  true 
believer  "  does  not  shut  out  the  reckless  song  of  the 
Bedouin  or  the  daring  stroke  of  the  bandit.  It  was 
really  through  this  dash  of  soldierly  temper  in  the 
Asmonean  blood  that  the  family  kept  up  the  energy 
which  asceticism  frets  away,  which  yet  is  needed  to 
inspire  society  with  that  element  of  strength  and 
hardihood  essential  to  its  lasting  vigour.  The  leviti- 
cal  revolt  of  the  Asmoneans  seemed  likely  to  pro- 
duce only  ascetics  ;  but  it  was  soldiers  whom  it  really 
made. 

*  Verses  45,  46  :  The  popular-ballad  character  of  this  adventure  is 
represented  by  the  following  stanzas  in  the  French  :  — 

"  La  fête,  ce  jour-là,  finit  en  ëlegie  ; 
A  la  voix  de  chanteurs 
Succédèrent  les  pleurs. 

"Allons!  debout,  mes  braves! 
Vendez  votre  âme  cher  ! 
Les  choses  sont  plus  graves 
Qu'  à  la  noce  d'hier." 


THE  HELLENIST  REACTION.  341 

We  should  picture  to  ourselves  the  government 
of  the  Seleucidse  as  we  do  all  Oriental  governments, 
that  of  Turkey  in  particular,  which  really  exists 
only  in  the  towns;  it  never  penetrates  into  the 
mountains,  never  ventures  into  the  desert.  The 
mountain  and  the  desert  thus  become  the  mustering- 
place  of  all  bold  spirits,  — ^ those  who  live  together  a 
life  of  entire  freedom,  holding  themselves  in  reserve 
for  what  the  future  may  bring  to  pass.  The  country 
meanwhile  lives  in  peace,  knowing  its  anarchic 
forces  to  be  diked  back,  but  ready  to  be  drawn 
upon  at  need. 

This  singular  period,  in  which  religious  fanaticism 
seemed  to  have  gone  to  sleep,  lasted  in  Judea  eight 
or  ten  years.  It  was  a  time  of  peace,  when  every 
man  reposed  under  his  own  vine  and  fig-tree,  and 
was  tranquil.  It  was  really  due  to  the  Hellenists 
and  moderates,  who  did  not  reject  on  principle  the 
Syrian  domination.  We,  who  think  less  of  abstruse 
morality  than  we  do  of  liberty,  and  who  look  upon 
fanaticism  as  the  worst  of  evils,  can  think  of  these 
years  as  very  happy.  There  was  much  less  blood- 
shed ;  mutual  hatred,  too,  was  not  so  bitter.  We 
like  what  soothes  the  nerves  of  that  poor  humanity 
which  so  often  starts  and  quivers  at  very  slight 
alarms.  The  fanaticism  of  the  band  that  collected 
round  the  Asmonean  brotherhood  greatly  fell  off. 
The  troop  of  saints  (as  we  imagine  them)  about 
Judas  Maccabeus  had  become  a  band  of  adventurers, 
passing  its  days  marauding  in  the  desert  with  the 


342         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Nabathaeans.  But  that,  after  all,  was  better  than 
to  be  setting  their  blood  aflame  for  the  Torah. 
Looked  at  in  one  way,  this  brigand  life  had  its  uses, 
nay,  its  necessity.  There  was  energy  in  it,  and 
manliness,  after  the  Arab  fashion.  If  La  Yendée 
had  succeeded,  the  soldiers  of  La  Rochejaquelin  and 
Charette  would  very  soon  have  been  engaged  to- 
gether in  maintaining  law  and  order.  We  shall 
presently  see  Jonathan  employing  his  band  as  an 
instrument  of  public  force,  resuming,  as  captain 
of  an  armed  police,*  the  position  we  have  seen 
him  occupy  as  head  of  an  army  pledged  to  a  holy 
work,  and  the  organizer  of  fanaticism. 

*  The  same  thing  may  be  seen  frequently  among  Arab  chiefs  ;  for 
example,  in  Akil  Aga,  at  the  time  of  the  events  in  Syria  in  1860. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  ASMONEAN  FAMILY:  JONATHAN. 

During  this  period  of  peace  and  prosperity,  Bac- 
chides  was  not  always  resident  at  Jerusalem  ;  yet 
he  was  the  real  governor  of  Judea,  and  all  its  affairs 
passed  through  his  hands.  The  situation  grew  daily 
more  distinct.  Jonathan  and  his  band  took  more 
and  more  the  character  of  a  free  company,  ready 
to  take  service  with  any  who  chose  to  employ  it. 
Religious  dissensions  were  dying  out.  The  govern- 
ment of  Syria,  renouncing  the  false  notions  which 
had  misled  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  became  indifferent 
to  the  parties  in  Judea,  and  leaned  first  on  one, 
then  on  the  other,  according  to  circumstances.  Jona- 
than had  one  great  advantage  :  he  had  a  troop  in  his 
own  service,  brave,  and  it  would  seem  under  some- 
thing like  discipline.  Attacks  upon  him  had  ceased.* 
He  lived  as  he  pleased,  quite  quietly,  in  a  part  of  the 
country  remote  from  government  authority,  called  the 
"  Wilderness,"  or  else  in  the  marshes  of  the  Jordan,! 
which  then  as  now  made  a   jungle  unapproachable 

*  'Ei/  rjo-vxla  nenoiêoTt,.     1  Maccabees  ix.  68. 
f  Ta  ekrj  tov  noTafjiov» 


344         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

to  any  regular  police.  An  event,  whose  details  we 
know  very  obscurely,*"  threw  daylight  on  the  situa- 
tion. Jonathan  and  his  comrades  had  discovered  in 
the  Wilderness  a  ruined  stronghold,  called  "  Beth- 
Basi,"  which  they  repaired  as  best  they  could,  forti- 
fied in  the  manner  of  the  time,  and  occupied.  They 
were  on  bad  terms  with  the  Arabs  of  that  neighbour- 
hood, the  Beni-Phasiron,  also  with  a  sheik  Odom- 
ara,t  and  his  brothers.  Certain  enemies  of  Jonathan 
(possibly  these  very  Arabs)  unhappily  persuaded 
Bacchides  that  it  would  be  easy  to  capture  the 
Jewish  rebels.  A  first  attempt  at  a  surprise  turned 
out  so  ill  that  the  rebels,  having  got  wind  of  it, 
seized  fifty  men  concerned  in  the  plot,  and  slew 
them.  Bacchides  then  laid  siege  to  Beth-Basi.$ 
Leaving  the  little  fort  in  charge  of  his  brother 
Simon,  Jonathan  went  out  with  a  few  determined 
men,  attacked  Odomara  and  the  Beni-Phasiron  in 
their  tents,  defeated  them,  carried  off  many  prisoners, 
and  returned  without  loss  ;  while  Simon  assaulted 
and  burnt  the  siege  engines.  Joining  their  forces, 
the  two  brothers  now  attacked  Bacchides,  and  got 
the  better  of  him  ;  and  he,  in  rage  against  those  who 
had  drawn  him  into  this  unlucky  venture,  caused 
several  of  them,  it  is  said,  to  be  put  to  death. 

These    stories   are  told  us  in   a  way  at  once  so 
partial  and  so  incomplete  that  we  have  no  means  of 

*  1  Maccabees  ix.  68. 

t  ï<"im;?  (See  Fritzsche,  Handh.,  1  Maccabees,  p.  144). 

%  The  site  is  uncertain.     Josephus  substitutes  Beth-Hogla. 


THE  ASMONEAN  FAMILY.  345 

knowing  what  was  taking  place  behind  the  scenes. 
What  we  do  know  is  that  the  affair,  beginning 
with  a  battle,  ended  with  a  reconciliation.  Jonathan 
sent  agents  to  Jerusalem  who  negotiated  the  aman. 
Complete  amnesty  was  granted  him,  w^ith  the  prom- 
ise that  no  inquiry  should  be  made  into  any  act  of 
his  life,  past  or  future.  All  the  Jewish  prisoners 
held  by  Bacchides  were  set  at  liberty  ;  and  the  most 
curious  part  of  the  affair  is  (though  it  was  quite  in 
accordance  with  the  customs  of  the  East)  that  the 
criminal  hunted  with  an  armed  force  passed  without 
any  interval  to  the  exercise  of  officially  recognized 
power.  Enlisted  thus  into  the  service  of  the  Syrian 
government,  Jonathan  established  himself  at  Mich- 
mash,  about  two  leagues  north  of  Jerusalem,  armed 
with  all  the  powers  of  the  government.*  The  first 
use  he  made  of  his  authority  was  to  carry  out  the 
ideas  of  an  incorrigible  theocracy,  and  to  make  the 
ungodly  disappear  out  of  Israel.!  This  probably  he 
effected  by  a  few  executions,  which  terrorized  the 
rest,  and  made  them  hasten  to  leave  the  country. 

It  is  however  certain  that,  for  reasons  mostly 
unknown  to  us,  Bacchides  at  this  time  quarrelled 
with  the  Hellenists  to  whom  he  had  hitherto  looked 
for  support.  In  Jonathan's  band  he  found  exactly 
what  he  needed,  —  soldiers  trained  to  war  through 
long  experience  in  the  Wilderness,  —  and  in  their 
chief  a  love  of  order,  and  a  personal  record  which 

*  "Yip^aro  Kpiveiu  tov  \a6v.     (1  Maccabees  ix.  73.) 
■j"   Kal  r}(f}âviae  tovs  âae^eîs  i^  'la-par]\. 


346         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

insured  the  pacification  of  the  country.  It  is  a  matter 
of  daily  occurrence  in  the  East  for  the  ruling  powers 
to  form  an  alliance  with  some  rebel  they  have  taken 
arms  against.  Party  hatred  in  these  countries 
quickly  yields  to  the  shifting  exigencies  of  policy 
and  interest. 

In  152  B.  c.  the  tottering  condition  of  the  kingdom 
of  Syria  was  shown  by  a  new  revolution,  which 
added  to  the  strength  of  those  who  desired  to  declare 
themselves  independent.  An  adventurer  named  Bala, 
said  to  be  the  son  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  caused 
himself  to  be  proclaimed  king  by  the  garrison  at 
Acre.  Jonathan  skilfully  profited  by  the  long  war 
that  ensued  to  obtain  from  both  sides  an  increase 
of  power.  Demetrius  gave  him  permission  to  raise 
troops,  and  to  take  back  the  hostages  that  Bacchides 
had  shut  up  in  Akra.  Jonathan  entered  Jerusalem, 
where  the  authority  of  his  family  had  ceased  to  exist 
for  about  ten  years,  raised  troops,  and  compelled 
the  surrender  of  the  hostages.  Terror  came  with 
him.  All  who  had  opposed  his  revolt  had  to  flee 
for  their  lives.  The  citadel  of  Akra  and  the  for- 
tified town  of  Bethsura  alone  remained  in  the  hands 
of  the  Syrians.  Here  there  was  energetic  resistance. 
The  apostate  deserters  to  Hellenism,  shut  up  behind 
those  thick  walls,  trembled  for  their  lives  should 
they  fall  into  the  hands  of  Jonathan. 

Bala  on  his  part  tried  to  outbid  his  rival.  He 
sent  Jonathan  a  letter,  in  which  he  called  him 
brother,   offered    him   friendship,  asked  for   his    in 


THE  ASM  ONE  AN  FAMILY,  347 

return,  appointed  him  liigli-priest,  and  promised 
the  gift  of  a  robe  of  purple  and  a  golden  crown. 
On  receiving  this  letter,  Jonathan  assumed  the  pon- 
tifical dress  to  officiate  at  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles, 
now  near  at  hand,  and  made  haste  to  raise  an  army, 
and  order  the  forging  of  weapons.  The  great  end 
was  accomplished.  What  the  courage  of  Judas 
Maccabeus  had  failed  to  bring  about  was  done  by 
dissensions  in  the  kingdom  of  Syria.  Towards  the 
close  of  the  year  152  b.  c,  Jonathan,  under  very  few 
restrictions,  was  sovereign  of  Judea.* 

The  dignity  of  high-priest  was,  indeed,  the  very 
thing  that  might  unite  against  him  all  shades  of 
opinion  among  the  Jews,  who  had  grown  indifferent 
to  the  idea  of  royalty.  The  result  proved  that  it 
was  an  enormous  evil.  The  Asmonean  d}^ nasty  was 
destroyed  by  its  unnatural  union  of  military  and 
priestly  power.  It  was,  besides,  a  formal  defiance  of 
the  Law,  which  required  that  the  high-priest  should 
be  of  the  family  of  Aaron.  But  at  the  point  where 
we  are  now  arrived,  no  other  solution  was  possible. 
Since  the  death  of  Alcimus  there  had  been  no  high- 
priest.  It  is  doubtful  if  Alcimus  had  been  of  the 
house  of  Zadok  ;  at  any  rate,  no  man  of  that  family 
was  high-priest  after  him  :  the  position  fell  to  the 
race  founded  by  the  heroism  of  Mattathiah.  The 
son  of  Onias  III.  had  never  been  recognized  in 
Judea.     This  last  of  the  family  of  Zadok  conceived 

*  1  Maccabees  x.  1,  &c.  ;  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xiii.  1,  &c.     The 
titles  which  are  given  him  are  those  of  crTparrjyôs  and  jMepiôâpxns- 


348         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

at  this  time  a  singular  idea  (150  b.  c):  it  was  to  get 
permission  of  the  king  of  Egypt  to  build  a  Temple, 
like  that  of  Jerusalem,*  at  Leontopolis  in  the  nome 
of  Heliopolis,t  —  in  accordance  with  a  passage  in 
Isaiah, J  which  he  interpreted  to  suit  his  purposes. 
This  childish  project  had  but  little  success.  Jeru- 
salem could  not  be  dethroned.  The  little  Egyptian 
counterfeit  survived,  however,  as  all  religious  estab- 
lishments on  a  money  basis  will  do,  till  the  first 
century  of  our  era. 

Demetrius  made  Jonathan  still  higher  offers  than 
Bala  ;  but  not  long  after  he  was  defeated  and  killed. 
Jonathan  figured  in  great  splendour  at  Acre,  at  the 
marriage  of  Bala  with  the  daughter  of  Ptolemy  Phil- 
ometor  (in  the  spring  of  150).  Thus  all  the  courage 
of  Maccabeus,  and  of  so  many  Jewish  heroes,  had 
served  only  to  give  one  showy  figure  the  more  to 
an  ignoble  world.  The  life  led  by  Bala  in  Phoenicia 
was  the  most  shameful  ever  seen  up  to  that  day. 
Meanwhile  rivalries  and  treasons  conflict  on  every 
side  :  men  quarrel  for  the  rags  and  tatters  of  a 
world  not  worth  their  pains  to  win.  In  148  Deme- 
trius II.,  son  of  Demetrius  I.,  proclaimed  himself 
king  of  Syria,  assisted  by  an  army  of  Cretan  mer- 
cenaries. Jonathan,  faithful  to  Bala,  made  on  his 
behalf  a  successful  campaign  against  Joppa,  and 
gave  himself  the  great  pleasure,  as  a  Jew,  of  de- 

*  Josephus,  Antiquities,  xiii.  iii.  1-3;  B.  /.,  i.  i.  1;  vii.  x.  2-4; 
Mishna,  Menahoth,  xiii.  10. 

f  Concerning  the  site  see  Schiirer,  ii.  545,  note. 
X  Chap.  xix.  18,  &c. 


THE  AS  M  ONE  AN  FAMILY, 


349 


stroying  the  Temple  of  Dagon.''^  He  gained  for 
Judea,  among  all  these  bargainings,  the  old  Philis- 
tine town  of  Ekron.  Profiting  by  the  troubles  of 
the  times,  he  kept  to  his  fixed  idea,  which  was  to 
make  Jewish  independence  slide  safe  through  the 
clefts  in  a  disjointed  world. 

The  citadel  at  Jerusalem,  still  in  the  hands  of  the 
Syrians,  w^as  the  thorn  that  pierced  his  heart.  He 
thought  that  the  existing  state  of  anarchy  would 
justify  him  in  anything,  and  he  undertook  to  storm 
the  citadel  with  all  the  siege  enginery  of  the  time.t 
The  apostates,  or  moderates,  who  had  taken  refuge 
there,  saw  that  they  w^ere  lost,  and  forewarned  De- 
metrius. The  boldness  of  Jonathan  on  this  occasion 
had  nearly  been  his  ruin.  Demetrius,  very  angry, 
hastened  to  Acre,  ordered  Jonathan  to  raise  the 
siege,  and  sent  for  him  at  once  into  his  presence. 
Jonathan  suspended  operations  :j:  and  ^vent,  with  a 
large  attendance  of  priests  and  elders,  to  face  the 
peril.  He  brought  with  him  great  quantities  of  gold 
and  silver,  besides  other  superb  presents.  This  gold 
and  these  gifts  had  their  full  effect.  Jonathan 
gained  the  good  graces  of  Demetrius,  who  confirmed 
him  in  his  pontificate,  and  granted  all  he  asked, 
except  the  evacuation  of  Akra.  Three  districts  of 
Samaria  —  Apherema,§    Lydda,  and   Kamathaïm  — 

*  Beit-Dedjan,  between  Joppa  and  Ramleh  (1  Maccabees  x.  84). 
t  1  Maccabees  xi.  20,  &c. 

X  1  Maccabees  xi.  23;  no  doubt  we  should  read  eKeKevae  [/i^] 
nepiKaô^aôai  • 

§  Probably  the  Ephraim  mentioned  in  John  xi.  54. 


350         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL, 

were  annexed  to  Judea,  and  the  tribute  of  those 
countries  was  capitalized  for  three  hundred  talents. 
These  miserable  latter-day  Seleucid  sovereigns  were 
only  kept  in  power  by  the  aid  of  mercenaries.  They 
were  in  continual  need  of  money.  It  is  curious  that 
fifteen  years  after  all  kinds  of  disasters  money  was 
already  abundant  in  Jerusalem. 

It  now  appears  that  Jonathan,  though  nominally 
the  vassal  of  the  Seleucidse,  had  really  become  (145 
B.  c.)  a  national  sovereign,  an  ethnarch,  making 
treaties  for  his  nation,  acting  in  her  name,  and 
watching  for  her  aggrandisement.  The  Syrian  mon- 
archy was  going  from  bad  to  worse.  No  national 
sentiment  lay  hid  in  that  miserable  empire,  where  all 
turned  on  subsidising  foreign  armies,  always  ready 
to  desert.  Up  to  the  time  of  Demetrius  II.,  claim- 
ants of  the  throne  had  had  to  wrap  themselves  in  a 
Seleucid  title,  more  or  less  authentic.  This  was  now 
no  longer  necessary.  A  certain  Deodotus,  surnamed 
Tryphon,  born  at  Apamea  on  the  Orontes,  —  a  man 
capable  of  any  crime,  —  aspired  to  the  sovereignty. 
He  at  first  gave  himself  out  as  a  Seleucid,  real 
or  pretended.  Profiting  by  discontents  among  some 
disbanded  soldiers,  he  raised  up  as  rival  to  Deme- 
trius II.  a  young  son  of  Bala  (Antiochus  VI.).  Then 
ensued  a  cross-fire  of  undecipherable  intrigues.  At 
this  very  time  Jonathan  was  renewing  his  persuasions 
to  Demetrius  II.  to  relieve  him  of  the  Syrian  garri- 
sons at  Akra  and  Bethsura.     Demetrius  asrreed   to 

o 

all  he  asked,  provided  Jonathan  would  send  him  the 


THE  A  SMONEA  N  FA  MIL  V.  3  5 1 

reinforcements  he  needed.  Military  life  had  by  this 
time  made  such  headway  among  the  Jews,  that 
Jonathan  sent  at  once  to  Antioch  three  thousand 
^'strono*  men."  These  three  thousand  Jews  arrived 
in  the  very  midst  of  the  disorder.  The  population 
of  Antioch  was  on  the  point  of  overthrowing  Deme- 
trius II.  The  Jews  arrested  the  revolution.  Deme- 
trius was  saved  for  the  time.  The  Jewish  soldiers 
returned  to  Jerusalem  laden  with  booty.  But  De- 
metrius, it  seems,  abominably  broke  his  word.  Far 
from  showing  gratitude  to  those  who  had  saved  his 
throne,  he  went  back  on  all  his  promises,  and  be- 
haved very  ill  to  Jonathan,  who  accordingly  con- 
sidered himself  released  from  his  engagements.  He 
formed  an  alliance  with  Antiochus  VI.,  and  received 
from  him  a  confirmation  of  all  his  titles  and  privi- 
leges. His  brother  Simon  was  made  military  gov- 
ernor of  all  the  country  from  the  "Ladder  of  the 
Tyrians"*  to  the  coast  of  Egypt. 

The  great  ardour  of  Jonathan  made  him  indif- 
ferent to  all  personal  mortifications  :  never  had  he 
shown  more  activity  than  now,  when  age  was  steal- 
in  cr  upon  him.  Ascalon,  Gaza,  and  Damascus  saw 
him  always  victorious.  At  Cades  in  Galilee  he  fell 
upon  a  body  of  soldiers  belonging  to  Demetrius,  and 
came  near  losing  in  one  hour  all  he  had  gained  during 
his  laborious  life.  The  adventure,  however,  was  no 
new  thing  to  him.  He  got  back  safe  to  Jerusalem  ;  ^ 
but  no  man  in  the  East  was  certain  in  those  troubled 

*  Cape  Blanco  [Has  el  Abiad]. 


352         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

days  of  having  one  hour  of  repose.  Again  we  find 
him  warring  in  the  direction  of  Hamath  and  Eleu- 
therus,  and  afterwards  making  a  raid  among  the 
Zabdean  ^  Arabs,  after  which  he  went  to  Damascus 
to  sell  the  booty  he  had  taken.  Simon,  during 
this  time,  profiting  by  the  general  anarchy,  captured 
the  stronghold  of  Bethsura.  The  Hellenist  Jews 
who  harboured  there  were  forced  to  leave  the  coun- 
try. The  place  was  purified  and  colonized  with 
Jews  strict  in  the  Law.t  Simon  next  made  an  ex- 
pedition to  Ascalon  and  Joppa,  under  pretence  of 
taking  those  places  from  the  soldiers  of  Demetrius, 
but  in  reality  to  get  possession  of  them.  He  put 
Jewish  garrisons  into  both  places,  and  fortified 
Adida,  a  place  near  Modin. 

Judea,  though  still  nominally  a  vassal  state,  was 
rapidly  becoming  of  importance.  Jonathan  might 
now  turn  his  eyes  on  the  Romans,  who  were  at  this 
time  making  so  much  noise  in  the  world  ;  it  seems, 
however,  that  the  relations  of  the  Asmoneans  with 
Rome  (relations  which  gave  them  but  an  imper- 
fect knowledge  of  that  people)  did  not  begin  until 
a  later  period.^  On  all  important  questions  Jon- 
athan   consulted   his   elders.§     He  deliberated  with 

*  The  Nahr  ZebdanL  f  Cf.  1  Maccabees  xiv.  7,  33. 

t  1  Maccabees  xii.  1,  &c.  See  p.  334,  note.  They  fancied  that 
there  was  but  one  consul  at  Rome  !  The  correspondence  of  the  Jews 
with  the  Spartans  (1  Maccabees  xii.  6-18;  19-23;  2  Maccabees  v.  9; 
Josephus,  Antiquities,  xii.  iv.  10;  xiii.  v.  8.  Steph.  Byz.,  at  the  word 
'lovànîa)  is  certainly  a  fabrication  about  the  time  of  the  First  Book  of 
the  Maccabees.     Cf.  1  Maccabees  xiv.  16,  &c. 

§  Tepovaia  ;  cKKÀ^crta  irpea^vrépcov. 


THE  ASMONEAN  FAMILY.  353 

them  especially  on  the  construction  of  strongholds 
in  Juclea,  on  a  project  of  heightening  the  walls  that 
surrounded  Jerusalem,  and  especially  on  building  a 
great  wall  which  should  separate  the  city  entirely 
from  Akra,  and  prevent  all  intercourse  between 
them.  Not  being  able  to  take  Akra,  he  resolved  to 
isolate  it,  and  to  cut  off  its  supplies  of  provisions. 
When  his  people  attempted  to  meddle  with  the  old 
wall,  at  least  on  the  side  of  the  ravine,  it  was  found 
in  bad  condition,  and  crumbled  down. 

We  do  not  know  wdiy,  but  it  is  certain  that  there 
came  a  time  when  Tryphon  regarded  Jonathan  as 
his  most  dangerous  foe.  He  prepared  a  trap  for 
him.  He  invited  him  to  an  interview  at  Bethsan  or 
Scythopolis.  Jonathan  came  wdth  a  strong  force. 
By  various  pretexts  Tryphon  succeeded  in  separating 
him  from  his  army,  drew  him  towards  Acre,  and 
promised  to  give  him  that  city.  Jonathan  fell  into 
the  snare.  He  entered  Acre  with  a  thousand  men  ; 
these  thousand  were  easily  dealt  with,  and  the  old 
chief  of  Israel  fell  into  a  captivity  from  which  he 
never  escaped  (143  B.  c). 

Thus  ended  the  career  of  one  of  the  bravest  and 
most  skilful  warriors  of  the  second  century  before 
our  era.  In  Jonathan  we  see,  not  the  believer  or  the 
patriot,  but  the  successful  chief  of  a  band  of  war- 
riors trained  after  the  Arab  fashion.  By  taking 
sides  in  every  quarrel,  by  adroitly  shifting  to  the 
side  that  was  bent  on  shamelessly  sacrificing  the 
interests  of  the  State  to  private  ends,  he  attained 

VOL.  IV.  —  23 


354         HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE   OF  ISRAEL. 

his  object,  which  was  (it  is  true)  patriotic,  but  would 
never  have  been  effected  unless  the  Syrian  monarchy 
had  been  rotten  at  heart.  The  Jewish  State  was 
created  by  the  internal  quarrels  that  beset  the  State 
of  Syria.  But  Jonathan  fairly  earned  his  title  as 
founder  of  a  dynasty.  He  exposed  his  life  on  all 
occasions  ;  he  had  ever  a  single  eye  to  the  good  of 
his  party,  and  when  his  party  had  become  a  nation, 
the  good  of  his  nation,  whose  glory  and  success  he 
sought  through  every  kind  of  venture.  His  morality 
was  the  average  morality  of  his  time,  which  is  not 
saying  much.  Naturally  his  loss  was  deeply  felt. 
His  people  mourned  for  him  as  truly  as  they  had 
mourned  for  Judas  Maccabeus. 


END    OF    YOL.    IV. 


Messrs,  Roberts  Brothers'  Publications. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL 

By    ERNEST    RENAN, 

Author  of  "Life  of  Jesus." 

VOL.     L  —  Till  the  Time  of  King  David. 

VOL.   n.  —  From  the  Reign  of  David  up  to  the  Capture  op 

Samaria. 
VOL.  in. —  From  the  Time  of  Hezekiah  till  the  Return  from 

Babylon. 

8vo.     Cloth.     Price,  #2.50  per  volume. 
• 

It  may  safely  be  predicted  that  Renan's  latest  production  will  take  rank  as  his 
most  important  since  the  "  Life  of  Jesus."  There  is  the  same  charming  style, 
the  same  brilliancy  of  treatment,  the  same  clear  judgment  and  delicate  touches, 
the  deep  thoughts  and  thorough  mastery  of  his  subject,  which  have  made  Renan 
one  of  the  most  fascinating  of  modern  writers.  — New  York  Times. 

To  all  who  know  anything  of  M.  Renan's  "  Life  of  Jesus  "  it  will  be  no  surprise 
that  the  same  writer  has  told  the  "  History  of  the  People  of  Israel  till  the  Time 
of  King  David  "  as  it  was  never  told  before  nor  is  ever  like  to  be  told  again. 
For  but  once  in  centuries  does  a  Renan  arise,  and  to  any  other  hand  this  work 
were  impossible.  Throughout  it  is  the  perfection  of  paradox,  for,  dealing  wholly 
with  what  we  are  all  taught  to  lisp  at  the  mother's  knee,  it  is  more  original  than 
the  wildest  romance  ;  more  heterodox  than  heterodoxy,  it  is  yet  full  of  large  and 
tender  reverence  for  that  supreme  religion  that  biightens  all  time  as  it  transcends 
all  creeds.  —  The  Commercial  Advertiser. 

Many  are  the  histories  of  Israel.  Among  them  M.  Renan's  is  absolutely 
unique,  though  it  has  traits  in  common  with  the  most  diverse  of  them,  —  methods 
and  results  in  common  with  Ewald  and  Kuenen  and  Wellhausen  and  Stade, 
beauty  of  style  in  common  with  Milman  and  Stanley.  But  the  beauty  of  his  style 
is  not  the  beauty  of  theirs.  It  is  something  far  more  exquisite.  More  perfect  in 
its  delicate  grace  it  could  not  be.  .  .  .  M.  Renan  is  much  more  than  a  critic, 
much  more  than  a  historian.  He  is  a  creative  literary  artist.  ...  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that,  incidental  to  the  principal  contention  of  his  book,  M.  Renan 
has  many  just  and  admirable  observations  on  the  Old  Testament  literature,  and 
on  particular  events.  Moreover,  his  general  reflections,  though  often  cynical,  are 
always  bright  and  keen,  and  have  frequently  a  serious  and  penetrative  excellence. 
—  Am,  Unitarian  Review. 


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Messrs.  Roberts  Brothers'  Publications. 


The  Future  oe  Science. 

By   ERNEST    RENAN. 

One  Volume.     8vo.     515  pages.     Cloth.     Price,  $2.50. 


•'  It  would  be  difficult  to  name  a  man  of  literary  genius  comparable  in  breadth 
and  depth  of  learning,  or  fertility  and  charm  of  expression,  to  M.  Ernest  Renan. 
Certainly  in  all  France  there  is  none  like  him.  The  fact  is  jusi  as  plain  that  both 
in  and  out  of  France  he  has  been  persistently  misunderstood  by  certain  of  his 
readers,  and  misrepresented  by  those  who  have  not  and  will  not  read  him.  He 
has,  for  instance,  been  called  a  man  without  a  religion,  and  now,  as  though  in 
answer  to  this  statement,  and  by  way  of  refutnig  the  commoner  charge  that  levity 
is  the  characteristic  and  habitual  frame  of  mind  in  which  he  lives,  he  has  pub- 
lished a  volume  entitled  'The  Future  of  Science  '  (Boston:  Roberts  Brothers), 
wherein  he  sums  up  the  new  faith  which  with  him  has  replaced  '  shattered 
Catholicism.'  ...  ... 

"It  should  not  be  supposed  that  M.  Renan  is  here  seriously  attempting  to 
found  a  new  religion,  or  even  to  formulate  a  new  system  of  philosophy.  We  have 
read  the  volume  rather  as  a  personal  statement  of  the  delights  of  learning  and  of 
productive  scholarship,  and  as  such  it  has  a  distinct  and  rare  value.  Nowhere 
does  it  open  itself  to  a  profitable  criticism  that  would  refuse  to  challenge  the 
veracity  of  the  author." — Philadelphia  Press. 

"  Although  Ernest  Renan  wrote  much  of  this  book  many  years  ago  (shortly 
after  he  left  the  Catholic  Church)  it  is  to-day  an  epitome  of  the  n  ost  advanced 
modern  thought.  In  a  style  so  exquisitely  simple  that  we  think  not  of  the  words 
nor  of  the  writer  but  only  of  the  thought,  he  sums  up  what  science  has  done  for 
us  already.  We  are  brought  into  full  view  of  the  idols  it  has  knocked  down  With 
clear  vision  we  can  look  back  and  see  the  long  road  up  which  the  human  race  has 
toiled  :  our  eyes,  thanks  to  science,  unclouded  by  superstition,  can  study  it  And 
how  much  man's  position  has  altered  !  He  was  not  especially  created.  He  was 
not  foreordained  to  everlasting  punishmert,  nor  elected  to  eternal  bliss.  And 
this  great  change  of  thought,  affecting  the  foundations  of  our  social,  political, 
and  religious  being,  we  owe  to  science.   ■  .   • 

Will  science  ever  clear  awav  the  rubbish  and  show  us  a  broader,  fairer  land 
than  that  which  has  encouraged' the  toilers  before?  Renan's  book  gives  great 
hope  of  this.  It  is  written  in  a  tone  of  courage  and  cheerfulness  that  is  very  in- 
spiring. He  admits  the  danger  of  the  transition  period,  the  relaxa'ion  of  moral 
strength  with  the  stimulus  removed.  "  Chimeras  have  succeeded  in  obtaining 
from  "the  good  gorilla  an  astonishing  moral  effort  ;  do  away  w.ih  tlie  chimeras  and 
part  of  the  factitious  energy  they  aroused  will  disappear.  "  But  when  between  the 
lines  of  this  book  we  can  detect,  as  we  do,  a  spirit  devout,  tender,  upt.ght,  cheer- 
ful, and  serene,  it  seems  that  the  future  state  of  pure  rationalism  which  science 
aims  to  bring  about  would  not  be  incompatible  with  human  goodness  and  happi- 
ness." —  Chicago  Tribune. 


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Ushers. 

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